Adventures with Chuck Archives - Page 8 of 14

Do You Smoke? – Another General Yeager Story

By Victoria Yeager / February 7, 2014

General Yeager in his own words: When I enlisted in the Army Air Corps, they have you meet with an army psychologist. This was going to be fun! I was answering his questions when he pulls out a cigarette, slowly lights it, puffs, blows the smoke in my face and asks: Do you smoke? Me:…

Yaw Damper & Snaking Discussion re F-86, F-104, Century Series

By Victoria Yeager / February 7, 2014

Question from a top engineering historian: I have been doing some research into specific airplanes, one of which is the production F-86A and later models. In two different places I came across engineers casually discussing the in flight high-speed ‘snaking’ motion of the F-86. One North American engineer just said ‘. . . the snaking…

Visiting Jackie Cochran. Fellow guest: President Johnson

By Victoria Yeager / February 1, 2014

One weekend I was at Jackie Cochran’s in Indio, California, near Palm Springs. President Johnson was also visiting. Jackie invited him to go for a ride around the ranch. When they returned, Floyd Odlum, her husband, was livid: You don’t drive the President around. He has secret service and all sorts of people who need…

British v American Fighter Pilots

By Victoria Yeager / January 16, 2014

Jan 16, 1944 – General Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Allied invasion force in London. And not a moment too soon for the US fighter pilots at Leiston, UK. The British, whose derrieres we were saving, were rudely saying: The Americans are: Overpaid Oversexed and Over here. After General Eisenhower took command, the…

Yeager Gets Nuke Weapons at Hahn Air Base during Cold War

By Victoria Yeager / January 15, 2014

General Yeager: About 10 months after I arrived at Hahn Air Force Base, life became more complicated and dangerous for all of us. The wing received new airplanes – a bigger and more powerful version of the Sabre, called the H model, which gave us much faster acceleration. The MiGs discovered the fact when a…

General Yeager Recollects B-47 & Gen Ascani

By Victoria Yeager / January 13, 2014

I used to fly from Wright Field to Edwards with a few stops along the way – Oklahoma City, OK, then Alberquerque, New Mexico. One time I flew a B-47 into New Mexico. General Ascani needed a ride. When he saw I was flying the bomber alone, he sputtered: Where’s your co-pilot? Me: I don’t…

A New Christmas Poem by Anonymous (not me)

By Victoria Yeager / December 22, 2013

A Different Christmas Poem The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My daughter beside me, angelic in rest. Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, Transforming the yard to a winter delight. The…

Without an Abort – Mission to South Korea – Pueblo Flap

By Victoria Yeager / December 22, 2013

From General Chuck Yeager: After the US Navy ship, the Pueblo, was taken by the North Koreans in 1968, we took off from South Carolina and 17 hours later, my whole wing was in South Korea without an abort. That mission led to my becoming a General. On the way, we hit the tankers off…

Coupling in Aircraft — A Complex Subject Made Simple by Robert Kempel

By Victoria Yeager / December 14, 2013

Coupling in Aircraft — A Complex Subject Made Simple What is a simple explanation for inertia coupling? Airplanes move above the Earth and have on occasion displayed large complex motions in three-dimensional atmospheric space. To conduct analyses, to bring understanding, and order out of chaos we engineers assign what might seem to be an arbitrary…

My First & Only Cruise: Yeager Going to War (WWII) on HMS Queen Elizabeth

By Victoria Yeager / December 9, 2013

General Yeager tells this story: 1943: Shortly before Christmas, we left for England and war. Just a couple nights before, we had feasted on the antelope I had herded and shot cleanly with a P-39. Far better than spam or powdered eggs, it would be our last good meal for a long time. As the…

COL SPICER – ALMOST GOT ME KILLED IN WWII

By Victoria Yeager / December 2, 2013

From General Chuck Yeager: Man, it was close. See, what happened was: Because I had exceptional eyes, even though I was a junior officer, I flew my first mission as 357th Fighter Group Commander Col Spicer’s wingman, Col Spicer was fearless, loved to dogfight without concern for personal risk or his wingman’s apparently. With bristling…

Flying Chase for Pilot with Hypoxia: From Chuck Yeager’s files

By Victoria Yeager / September 7, 2013

Chuck Yeager: I never lost a pilot while flying chase, but there were many close calls. After I had flown the X-4 research airplane, the Air Force turned it over to NACA, and I flew chase for their pilot. Joe Walker. We were climbing together through 20,000 feet, and was listening to Joe talking with…