flying with Chuck Yeager – The Chuck Yeager Foundation

General Yeager & General Robin Olds, Directors of Safety

By Victoria Yeager / March 17, 2022

Brig General Robin Olds, considered a handsome man with a dashing mustache, was a highly regarded triple Ace from World War II and Vietnam. General Yeager and he served at the same time in Vietnam. One of General Yeager’s later encounters with General Olds, General Yeager’s predecessor as Director of Safety, was when General Olds’…

Yeager’s Last World War II Mission – Missing the Biggest Battle of the Year

By Victoria Yeager / January 19, 2022

Jan 15, 1945 Yeager’s buddy was the scheduler and had scheduled Yeager and himself as spares that day – Yeager’s 61st and last WWII mission. No one aborted so Yeager led his buddy on a tour of southern France where he had been shot down, Lake Annecy, Geneva and then to Switzerland. They each dropped their…

General Yeager’s Salvation After World War II: the High Sierras

By Victoria Yeager / November 13, 2021

General Chuck Yeager’s words: “I’d seen the Alps and the Pyrenees from the air, and I’d watched the sun come up on the Atlantic Ocean-but I was truly taken aback by the spectacular beauty of the Sierras. I guess I’d finally found the Shangri-la I’d been looking for. I’ve never smoked or chewed tobacco, and…

What to do???? Without Pitch Control, Can’t Break the Sound Barrier

By Victoria Yeager / October 10, 2021

Jack Ridley sat at the corner of the conference table scribbling little notes and equations. He said, “Well, maybe Chuck can fly without using the elevator. Maybe he can get by using only the horizontal stabilizer.” The stabilizer was the winglike structure on the tail that stabilized pitch control. Bell’s engineers had purposely built into…

End of the Line – Looking Like Can’t Break Sound Barrier

By Victoria Yeager / October 6, 2021

In General Yeager’s words: On our next flight, October 8, 1947; we got knocked on our fannies. I was flying at .94 MACH at 40,000 feet, experiencing the usual buffeting when I pulled back on the control wheel and Christ, nothing happened. The airplane continued flying with the same attitude and in the same direction.…

Chuck Yeager, Escaping Nazis, Makes it to Gibraltar May 15, 1944

By Victoria Yeager / May 16, 2021

In General Yeager’s own words: “After 1. being shot down on March 5, 1944 and hiding out, sometimes in plain sight, from the Nazis, Gestapo, Germans, and French Milice (German controlled French police, sometimes much worse than the Gestapo), 2. escaping over the Pyrenees carrying a wounded airman, and 3. spending a few weeks at…

Chuck Yeager and Helicopters – Hint: Not his Fave

By Victoria Yeager / March 16, 2021

General Yeager was not a fan of helicopters. One reason was that most pilots hung out in the dead man’s curve. Another reason: While in the High Sierras, as a passenger, he was in a terrible helicopter crash. In his own words: General Chuck Yeager: “I took General Branch up to Rocky Basin Lakes, about…

Gestapo is Coming

By Victoria Yeager / March 15, 2021

Raoul ultimately takes me back to Gabriel. We ride bikes at night from Ambrus to get there. Gabriel was a larger-than-life man. I will never forget how he protected me. He was the leader of the Maquis in Nerac, the mayor, and was friends with the Germans in town. The Germans knew that the Maquis…

Combat over Berlin March 4, 1944. The Cavalry

By Victoria Yeager / March 3, 2021

Glamorus Glen March 4, 1944 Some of us never got word of the recall. The weather was stinkin’. There were only two of us P-51s escorting a box of bombers for the first US daylight raid over Berlin. None of us had gotten the recall. I spotted an Me-109 below me, dove on him and…

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 M2-F1 #25 Jan 29, 1964 Yeager 240 3,650 1st flight of the day M2-F1 #26 Jan 29, 1964 Yeager 240 3,650 2nd flight of the day M2-F1 #27 Jan 30, 1964…