Alas, the death has been announced of one of my boyhood heroes, Chuck Yeager, the first man to 'break the sound barrier'. As a 'nipper', I was fascinated by high speed planes and the race for one of them to travel faster than the speed of sound. As The Telegraph puts it in its obit of this courageous man:
A B-29 bomber carried the X-1 26,000 feet (7,925 m) over California's Mojave Desert and let it go. Neither Yeager nor aviation engineers knew if the plane - or the pilot - would be able to handle the unprecedented speed without breaking up. But Yeager took the 31-foot X-1, powered by liquid oxygen and alcohol, to Mach 1.06, about 700 mph at 43,000 feet, as if it were a routine flight.
Later, I was 'gutted' to witness the death of another of my heroes, John Derry, the de Havilland test pilot, whose aircraft disintegrated after he broke the sound barrier at the Farnborough Air Show. Truly brave men, all of them.
Brave men indeed. The right stuff all 'round. Such men seem to be missing in our post modern world.
Posted by: Whitewall | Tuesday, 08 December 2020 at 18:40
Yeager was my hero too. He had a lot of influence on my choice of career.
Posted by: Bob | Tuesday, 08 December 2020 at 20:43
I didn't know Yeager was still alive. So many of the Apollo astronauts, who I think of as the next generation of brave hearts, have already gone. 97, when I checked. That's a long and full life! Rest in peace.
Posted by: Whyaxye | Tuesday, 08 December 2020 at 22:07
Among his other achievements he was also a WWII fighter ace. In his p-51 he shot down five German planes in one encounter. A great man and a modest one.
Posted by: Diplomad | Wednesday, 09 December 2020 at 14:33
https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2020/12/bell-x-1-glamorous-glennis.html
Posted by: JK | Thursday, 10 December 2020 at 15:00
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2020/12/remembering-remarkable-man.html
Interesting interview of General Yeager toward the end of that short post.
Posted by: JK | Thursday, 10 December 2020 at 18:18