Can’t hardly put this book down. He was from a small town about 25 miles south of here Hamlin. Maybe the best pilot in history.
Can’t hardly put this book down. He was from a small town about 25 miles south of here Hamlin. Maybe the best pilot in history.
1988 Ranger 364V
150HP Merc Black Max
Loved the book.
Yep I liked it and passed it on to fishing buddy and he called last week and said " Great book........Thanks!".
When he broke the sound barrier he was riding in a flying bomb. The liquid oxygen tank was right behind his seat. His commanding officer didn’t know he was married and had kids when he picked him to fly the X1. But he always said Yeager was the man for the job. Despite not having a college education.
Great read.
When he was a squadron commander in 1954 in Germany. They trained with tactical nukes in case something happened with Russia. He said they had orders for the strikes into Russia but not enough fuel for the round trip. Day um
Might not have been much left to come back to. Anyway
I read it several years ago. He was quite the man!
Not too many what I would call True hero’s. But he is sure one to me. The x1 and the x1a had a door to get out. But Yeager always said it was useless for a quick escape in the x1 planes because the wings would have cut you in have at those speeds anyhow. So he had a few scary rides in them. One in the x1a almost killed him. Shook him up. And his wife said he never got shook up. Must have been a bad one. Then later that night he had to give a speech somewhere beat all to heck.
Read it a while ago, good book, and worth a read.
I read a story from a guy the other day who was a F-14 pilot back in the day. And there was some Air Force airshow display going on and they invited the Navy to bring an F-14 to display. Well these guys had just come in from a carrier combat deployment and their planes were still just covered in dust and grime from operating and had no time to clean so they just sent the plane and the guy telling the story flew it into the show. And the organizers had them setup down at the far end. And he said all the Air Force birds were all cleaned up and shiny. Chuck was doing something at the show and they were driving him down the line in a Jeep or something and the driver turned before they reached the Tomcat and the story teller saw Chuck kinda turn his head and tap the driver on the shoulder and sure enough he made a U turn and went straight to the Tomcat and he jumped out and shook the pilots hand and asked them a bunch of questions about the Tomcat and as he was going to leave Chuck said thank you for coming you've got the only real war plane here today. And he was talking about the fact the dirt and grime on it showed that it had actually gone out and been used for its purpose and wasn't all shined up for a show.
I've always been a fan of Chucks and just thought that story was pretty cool.
Bud Anderson's book To Fly and Fight is a good read as well if you are looking for another to go read.