I found the audio interview very interesting. This guy is 89 years old and still very, very sharp. Still knows his engineering. Yeager flying a F-15. That’s the Right Stuff!
That is awesome. Yeager is a living legend, and in my mind, a national treasure. To still be with us at 89 and to still be able to fly 65 years after his historic feat is nothing short of inspiring.
Very cool.
I don’t know if he still does it, but Yeager used to give a talk at the National Air & Space Museum every year at about this time. I went to the one in 1997. He played the audio recording of his flight in the X-1A when it went out of control at Mach 2.4.
The flight is described here, with transcript. (warning: PDF)
Funny how (relatively) routine it is to break the sound barrier now.
Yeager’s plane was loaded with rocket fuel, tied to the wing of a bomber, and carried aloft for release at a suitable altitude; the rocket engines of the Glamorous Glennis developed all of 6,000 pounds of thrust, with a total burn time of just under five minutes.
Yesterday Yeager went aloft in an F-15 fighter aircraft. Each engine on this plane is capable of up to 25,000 pounds of thrust, and together they can propel it to Mach 2.5; when dialed back for cruise, the F-15 can cover 3400 miles before touching down. And the F-15 design is already 40 years old!
A slight nitpick: The X-1 was carried aloft under the fuselage of a B-29; partially, but not completely, in the bomb bay. (picture) Yeager would be in the bomber during takeoff, then climb down to the X-1 after they were airborne. On the first supersonic flight, he sneaked a piece of a broom handle with him so he could use his left arm to close the hatch. He had a couple cracked ribs on his right side from a horse riding accident.
I think they only moved to the under-wing placement when they got a B-52 to do the drops. The X-15 was carried that way; I’m not sure which other of the X-planes were.
Yeager started as an enlisted man and was a aircraft maintenance mechanic. The military started a program that allowed enlisted men to become pilots. From there he went on to become an officer and eventually a general. Quite a career.
It’s a shame they didn’t keep the program for enlisted man pilots. Seems like a good idea.
Bob Hoover was his backup and flew a chase plane in 1947. I think Hoover is a much more interesting figure in aviation history. Certainly more likable when you read each of their memoirs.