Chuck Yeager
The test pilot legend made famous in 'The Right Stuff' talks to USA TODAY about his life. Source: Chuck Yeager, still soaring at 89 GRASS VALLEY, Calif. – In the parking lot of this small Sierra Nevada town's airfield, a decommissioned F-104 Starfighter jet looms over a series of plaques. They...
Female American pilot Jackie Cochran made history on this day when in 1953 she became the first woman to break the sound barrier. American pilot Jackie Cochran, who became the first woman to break the sound barrier 65 years ago today, owes some of her breakthrough success in the sky...
This Month in Aviation History:Dec. 12, 1953: Maj. Chuck Yeager flies his Bell X-1A to March 2.435, approximately 1,650 miles per hour, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. At Mach 2.4 at 80,000 feet the aircraft spun out of control, spinning on all 3 axes. G-forces sent Yeager's head into...
Charleston’s Yeager Airport and the West Virginia Air Guard will celebrate their 70th anniversary with an air show Sept. 30-Oct. 1, featuring flying demonstrations, aircraft displays and tours, and rides aboard World War II-era aircraft. Known as Kanawha Airport when it opened in 1947, after three years of earth-moving work,...
Since its inception in 1947, the Air Force has consistently broken barriers as an element of the finest joint warfighting team on the planet, and its Airmen have refined its mission through innovation and teamwork. This video is one of 10 videos for the Air Force's 70th Anniversary. The theme...
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Yeager meets Col. Nelson of I Dream of Jeannie.
During a forum on the future of aeronautics representatives from NASA described the inevitability of passenger planes able to travel at speeds around 4,800 km/h (3,000 mph). Hypersonic aircraft not only allows for faster passenger travel but can also lead to faster response to global tragedy. FASTEST TECH The future of...
Right Stuff movie
Source: An Oral History of the Epic Space Film The Right Stuff | WIRED Before writer-director Philip Kaufman brought Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff to the big screen in 1983, onscreen astronauts were little more than alien quarry or asteroid bait. In Kaufman's hands, however, spaceflight became a far...
Military test pilots are a rare breed, undertaking the responsibility of flying new aircraft to their design limits . . . and then beyond. Source: 6 of the most badass US military test pilots of all timeMilitary test pilots are a rare breed, undertaking the responsibility of flying new aircraft...
During the early days of testing for the legendary SR-71 Blackbird there were some harrowing mishaps, the details of which have rarely come to light. On January 25, 1966, test pilot Bill Weaver and Lockheed flight test reconnaissance and navigation systems specialist Jim Zwayer experienced their plane vanishing around them...