Air Force – Page 2 – The Chuck Yeager Foundation

I Never Lost a Pilot While Flying Chase by Chuck Yeager

By Victoria Yeager / February 24, 2021

Many, many pilots died testing airplanes over the Mojave desert from Muroc, then Edwards AFB, CA. Over 51 streets were named after those who lost their lives flying test. Even Edwards is named after Glen Edwards. General Yeager’s own words flying chase for test pilots: I never lost a pilot while flying chase; but there…

ARPS – early astronaut training

By Victoria Yeager / July 14, 2019

In late 1961, we were ready to screen applicants for our first class at the space school, and because they would be the first bunch, the screening process was particularly thorough. We wanted only the very best pilots, and our first couple of classes consisted of experienced military test pilots, who had graduated from Edwards’…

In His Own Words: Emmett Hatch, black pilot, in Chuck Yeager’s Squadron 1950’s

By Victoria Yeager / July 12, 2019

In his own words from Yeager, An Autobiography pp 290-297: “The Air Force had only been integrated seven or eight years by the time I became a fighter pilot. I came up through the ranks as an enlisted man, the same as Chuck Yeager, but it wasn’t easy for me as a black man. There…

From Chuck Yeager shot down over France

By Victoria Yeager / March 7, 2018

March 4, 1944 1st daylight raid over Berlin. Weather was stinkin’. Only 2 P-51s guarding a box of bombers. They hit their targes. I shot down my first enemy aircraft (a/c). Woo hoo. I was out of ammo returning home. I espied the stragglers of the bombers in formation heading home. I called ahead. “Can…

Chuck Yeager & M2-F1 Lifting Body

By Victoria Yeager / December 3, 2017

Chuck Yeager flew the M2-F1 Lifting Body 5 times: Vehicle Date Pilot Velocity Altitude Comments M2-F1 #18 Dec 3, 1963 Yeager 240 3,650 Duration 00:01:35 …

March 1944 Escaping Germans – a farmhouse in Spain

By Victoria Yeager / March 30, 2016

General Chuck Yeager: Having been shot down March 5, 1944 and hidden with the French underground, I was now carrying a fellow airman over the Pyrenees, the story picks up in Spain, not out of the woods yet. After catnapping, I dragged and carried the airman for what seemed like hours. We were starving. We…

Yeager! Can’t you do anything right?

By Victoria Yeager / May 5, 2015

In General Yeager’s own words: After returning from being shot down, to return to combat, I had to go all the way up the chain of command until I found myself before General Eisenhower, The problem was if I was shot down again, the Germans might find me, torture me, and get information re the…

WWII: March 5, 1944 -Unteroffizier Irmfred Klotz Shot me Down – Chuck Yeager

By Victoria Yeager / January 11, 2015

The generally accepted research shows that 22 year old Unteroffizier Irmfred Klotz flying a Focke Wulf 190 shot my airplane down on March 5, 1944. I was 21, thinking I was Sierra Hotel just the day before, now this guy is thinking he’s Sierra Hotel. The day after I shot down his first two enemy aircraft, although…

Chuck Yeager: Where I Was on December 7, 1941 When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

By Victoria Yeager / December 8, 2014

General Chuck Yeager’s words: I had entered the Army Air Corps September 9, 1941, fresh out of high school and a summer of working with Dad, chores, huntin’, swimmin’ and fishin’. On December 7, 1941; I was stationed at Moffett Field in California, still a crew chief, although…

1947: Recording the Shock Wave on the X-1

By Victoria Yeager / October 13, 2014

Ridley put holes in the horizontal stabilizer and connected them to a recorder. Each flight he could see what the shock wave was doing. c. GCYI

Broken Ribs Before Breaking the Sound Barrier

By Victoria Yeager / October 13, 2014

October 12-13, 1947: In Chuck Yeager’s own words: Sunday night (October 12, 1947), after eating dinner at Pancho’s, Glennis and I decided to go riding. Glennis suggested a race back to the corral. As I got very close, in the lead, I saw someone had closed the gate. My horse and I pulled about 3…

Capt Yeager meets Howard Hughes

By Victoria Yeager / September 13, 2014

General Yeager in his own words: “I read this today: ‘Sept 13, 1935 – Aviator Howard Hughes, Jr., of Houston, set a new airspeed record of 352 mph with his H-1 airplane (Winged Bullet).’ Hughes helped design and flew the Spruce Goose. Once. November 2, 1947. History re that is here: The Largest Flying Boat…