Greatest double meaning film line of all time?
Is that a man?
berkeley. I read his autobiography back in the 80s. Hell of a guy, and he did more than just break the sound barrier.
RIP to a true American hero. 
In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :
You should read his sequal about huntin' and fishin'.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
He's always been a hero of mine. Must have been great genes tremendous skill, and luck to last as long as this with a risky career like his. RIP Chuck! We honor you as a great American.
The F-104 incident:
First person to break the sound barrier.
As a rule I don't hero worship but rules have exceptions.
My B I L started hanging out at Curtis Pitts hanger as a teen back in the early 60's. (Fishing buddy of my F I L's) Was asked to fly one of Curtis's planed to the Oshkosh Air Show one year. At the formal dinner, he was seated next to Chuck Yeager. Jim will tell ya it was one of the highlights of his life!
R. I. P. to a great man.
A life well lived.
A few years back, two of my friends were at the Oshkosh Airventure, taking refuge under the wing of their plane in the pouring rain. Three guys walked up asked of they could duck under there and join them until the rain let up a bit. Two of them were Chuck Yeager and Jack Roush.
Chick Yeager is one of my heroes. Jimmy Doolittle and Neil Armstrong were the others. Note all were pilots and alas, now all deceased.
RIP General Yeager.
Yeager was of the few people I thought was really cool.
Not "Steve McQueen-King of Cool" Hollywood cool but really Cool, in real life.
The point of The Right Stuff was there were a lot of guys up there at the tip of the spear who were up there in "Right Stuff land" and Yeager was the one THEY respected.
frenchyd said:A life well lived.
this man lived enough for 5 lives.. amazing guy.
Fueled by Caffeine said:frenchyd said:A life well lived.
this man lived enough for 5 lives.. amazing guy.
Even 5 may still not be enough.
clutchsmoke said:Fueled by Caffeine said:frenchyd said:A life well lived.
this man lived enough for 5 lives.. amazing guy.
Even 5 may still not be enough.
I'm thinking more like 9 lives.
SWMBO mentioned this morning that she went through basic training with his grandson. Yet for some bizarre reason she married me(many years later).
For years, he came up to far northern California to fish in the Smith River. I have always been sad I never ran into him. A hero of the "they don't make them that way any more" variety.
RIP General
A brief remembrance from Dad
Sometime in the early 1970s, my father and I were watching TV when a recruiting ad came on featuring Gen. Yeager. My dad commented, "Look at him, coming across as a kindly old gentleman. That guy was hell on wheels."
In 1959, my father, a Lt. Col., was deputy base commander for Aviano AFB. On the night in question, my father was gotten out of bed by the base commander, Col. Kienth; Lt. Col. Yeager and his officers were busting up the Officer's Club.
You have to understand: despite being a TAC base, Aviano was at that time very much a post-WWII base, and a small community. The O Club was wooden construction, and a family place; I remember having Thanksgiving dinners there, with all the other officers' families.
When my father arrived at the club, he found Yeager's officers smashing up the place. The enlisted bartender could do nothing. With the aid of several VERY large Polish-American APs, my dad placed all of them under house arrest, until Col. Kienth could hold office hours.
The CG of the 17th AF at that time was probably Gen. Henry Spicer, shot down over the Channel in WWII, lost several toes to frostbite before becoming a POW. An impressive and decent man, even to the boy of 12 I was then. http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/
Now that he's onto the next mission, hopefully he doesn't get put on house arrest by grandpop again.
Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) said:First person to break the sound barrier.
George Welch broke the sound barrier two weeks earlier than Yeager, in the XP-86. It was in a dive, but the sound barrier is the sound barrier.
His flights were how they knew that the machmeter going wiggy was an indicator that they were going transonic, and how they knew what a sonic boom was.
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