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Famed test pilot, retired Brig. Gen. Robert “Bob” Cardenas has died in San Diego, California. He was 102. From June 1947 to July 1949, Cardenas was an experimental test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and was awarded the Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters for experimental flight…

CELEBRATED TEST PILOT CHUCK YEAGER HAD A LONG AND EVENTFUL LIFE – MOST NOTABLY BECOMING THE FIRST PILOT TO BREAK THE SOUND BARRIER. AND HE DID IT IN A PLANE NAMED AFTER HIS FIRST WIFE – “GLAMOROUS GLENNIS” DICKHOUSE. Who was Chuck Yeager’s first wife Glennis Dickhouse? Glennis Dickhouse was pilot Chuck Yeager’s wife of…

By Richard Goldstein A World War II fighter ace and Air Force general, he was, according to Tom Wolfe, “the most righteous of all the possessors of the right stuff.” Chuck Yeager, the most famous test pilot of his generation who was the first to break the sound barrier, and, thanks to Tom Wolfe, came to…

By Susan King The newly refurbished theater at the famed Hollywood American Legion Post 43 will be blasting off Veterans Day evening with a 35 mm screening of Philip Kaufman’s acclaimed 1983 film, “The Right Stuff.” Based on Tom Wolfe’s bestseller, the epic chronicled the early years of the U.S. race to space and the test…

Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Chuck Yeager shares a conversation with Maj. Gen. Christopher Azzano, Air Force Test Center Commander, during U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School 75th anniversary celebration at Edwards Air Force Base, California, Sept. 21. Yeager is credited with being the first person to break the sound barrier in 1947 aboard a Bell X-1.…

By Christopher Woody Chuck Yeager began his career during World War II, flying as a private in the US Army Air Forces. In late 1942 he entered enlisted-pilot training and eventually became a P-51 fighter pilot. After the war, he held commands around the world, but Yeager, who turned 95 earlier this year, is best known for…

MORE THAN 65 YEARS AFTER IT WAS FILMED, JET PILOT MOVIE FEATURES SOME OF THE MOST SPECTACULAR AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY IN FILM HISTORY. Jet Pilot is a 1957 film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring John Wayne and Janet Leigh. Written and produced by Jules Furthman and presented by Howard Hughes, the movie was filmed…

NASA’s experimental supersonic X-plane project has a new name: the X-59 QueSST. So, what’s in the name? Well, the “X-59” part is a nod back to American X-plane history, which kicked off with the world’s first supersonic plane, the Bell X-1, famously piloted by Chuck Yeager in 1947 when it broke the speed of sound. Yeager nicknamed the…

A remarkable reunion occurred recently at Edwards AFB, California when the two key veterans involved in the breaking of the sound barrier in 1947 returned to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the achievement.  Meeting on stage on October 13, the day before the anniversary, were 94-year-old Brig. Gen (Ret.) Chuck Yeager, pilot of the experimental Bell…

The anniversary of the first manned supersonic flight comes around every year on Oct. 14. Being that this one falls “on the tens,” we will see more celebration and reflection of this famous date when the Bell X-1, with Chuck Yeager at the controls, “chased that demon out in the thin air” and punched a…

THIS MORNING AROUND 7 AM, THE ENGINES OF A MASSIVE, BELUGA-BODIED HELICOPTER CUT ON WITH A RUMBLE. The hum harmonized with the reverberations of Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles. As the Chinook’s two enormous rotor blades started to spin, blasting hot vapor smudged the monochrome stripes of pavement, desert floor, mountain ridge, and…

by Bryan Alexander / USA Today Before Tom Cruise soared into the danger zone with Top Gun, Sam Shepard, who died Thursday, brought a true American pilot hero to the screen in immortal style. Shepard’s breakout Oscar-nominated performance as pioneering test pilot Chuck Yeager was the soul of writer/director Philip Kaufman’s 1984 classic The Right Stuff. The actor…