A legend in aviation
Charles Aywood" Chuck Yeag, the ace of Allied air combat during World War II, brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War, and his most boastful title is that of the first person in human history to fly an airplane through the sound barrier and achieve supersonic flight.
You may not have heard of the above, but you may have seen Yeger in some places. In the game Civilization 6, whenever the player develops the "flying" technology, there is a one-in-two chance of discovering Yeger's quotes.
December 7, 2020, the 79th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in the United States, was the same day that Yegger passed away at the age of 97.
From stunned to ace
Unlike other legendary pilots, Yeger did not initially show interest in flying.
Because Yeger's father ran the natural gas business, Yeger has been fiddling with complex machinery since he was a child, and then mastered the skill of repairing. In June 1941, Yeger graduated from high school and three months later enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force as a ground crew member.
Ye ge's first experience in the plane was not very good, he was motion sickness, and when he got off the plane, he threw up.
However, when Yeger discovered that the pilot could hug left and right in the middle of a group of beautiful girls without having to dirty his hands like a ground crew, he quickly changed his mind.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was involved in World War II. The Army Air Corps soon relaxed the selection criteria for flight training: 18 years old and older, high school education. This gave Ye ge a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
In July 1942, Yegger was selected for training as he wished, and in March of the following year he was granted a fighter flight permit, along with the code name "Chuck". Over the next eight months, he caused trouble, such as being banned from flying in a cornfield and finding his beloved: Glenee Dickhouse through a ball.
Soon, Yeag's squadron crossed the sea on November 23 and arrived on the battlefield of Europe. Yeger soon received his own car, a P-51 Mustang fighter, and decided to name it after his fiancée, Glamorous Glenn.
On 11 February 1944, Yeag took part in combat missions for the first time, and on 4 March, Yeger shot down a German aircraft for the first time. However, his luck seemed to run out, and the next day the "Charming Glannie" was beaten down, and Yegger was forced to parachute and was injured.
At Yeag's feet was the fall of French territory, and if caught by german patrols, the consequences would be unimaginable. Fortunately, he was first discovered by a French lumberjack, and with his help, Yeger soon contacted the French underground resistance.
On 23 March, Yeger and another pilot with a broken leg arrived at the foot of the Pyrenees on the southern border of France. Over the mountains, Spain was a safe neutral country that they could borrow to return to England.
They climbed the mountain for four days, unfortunately found by the German patrol, Ye Ge was in a hurry, threw the navigator on a log, and slid down the cliff on the log to escape the pursuit. His comrade was unconscious, but Ye ge did not leave him alone, but carried him through the rest of the way.
The escaped Yeger enjoyed a spa in Spain
According to the regulations, pilots who successfully returned to France after landing in France were not allowed to fly back to France in order to avoid being arrested by the enemy after being shot again, exposing the relevant information of the resistance organization.
However, on June 6, the Allied forces landed in Normandy, and the French resistance groups also threw themselves into the battlefield with a high profile, and the pilots had no risk of leaking secrets. After going through one formality after another, Yegger appealed to Allied headquarters and persuaded Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower.
He finally has a chance to return to the Mustang fighter jet and unleash his revenge.
With the upgrading of the Mustang fighter, the Charming Granny also has two and three
On 12 October, Yeger shot down five enemy planes in a row. Traditionally, a pilot who shoots down five planes is called a "trump card," and Yegger earns the title of "Ace of the Day."
A report documenting Yegger's record
On 6 November, Chuck encountered the German Me262 jet fighter formation. The Me262 was the first jet fighter in human history to enter combat, outperforming allied fighters who were still using propellers, but in small numbers.
Me262 jet fighter
Yeger grabbed an Empty Space where the Me262 was preparing to land and successfully shot it down. It was a common tactic that the Allied Air Force had to use, but it also gave Yeger the capital to brag: "When I first saw the jet, I shot it down." ”
The reading screen of the World War II strategy game "Iron Ambition 4" contains this sentence from Yeger
By January 1945, Yeger had completed his final mission, and his personal record of landings had reached 12.5 (the record was equally divided when multiple co-op shots were fired). This record is still a bit far from the number one ace, but Yegger can at least return home as a survivor. In February of the same year, Ye ge and Glenee were successfully married.
From subsonic to supersonic
Several cases during World War II have shown that aircraft can get out of control when they reach speeds close to the speed of sound, and in severe cases, even cause the airframe structure to break and disintegrate. Many experts and scholars at that time believed that the speed of sound (about 340m/s) was the speed limit of human aircraft.
But there is something that has already taken the lives of tens of millions of people, and it has broken through the speed of sound - bullets. Based on machine gun bullets, the American Bell Company designed the X-1 test aircraft powered by rocket power, which was designed to break the view that the sound barrier was insurmountable and prove that human aircraft could maintain stable flight in supersonic speed.
The structure of the X-1 is very simple
According to a regulation in the U.S. Military, pilots shot down during wartime are free to choose where to go. In order to take care of his pregnant wife, Yeger chose Wright Airport in West Virginia, near home, where he worked as a test pilot to ensure that every repaired and maintained aircraft could fly properly.
Yeger's flying skills were appreciated by the commander, Colonel Boyd, who soon enrolled him in the test pilot school. Ye Ge only had a high school degree, and the process of accepting the new theory was not very smooth, but he graduated smoothly with the help of instructors and classmates.
Relying on Boyd's advice, Yeger became a test pilot for the X-1 in June 1947, giving him the opportunity to fly supersonically. Yeger then named the plane "Charming Glannie" and painted her a brilliant orange-red color.
According to the plan, the X-1 did not take off directly on the ground, but was dropped from the bomb bay of a heavy bomber, using the height and speed provided by the bomber to start the engine in the air and try to break through the speed of sound.
Bombers dropped X-1s
On August 29, 1947, Yeag's X-1 began its first test flight, reaching a top speed of Mach 0.85, or 85% of the speed of sound. On the eighth mission on October 10, the X-1's Mach hand finally pointed to Mach 0.997, giving Yeger confidence in his next flight.
The X-1 is densely packed with dashboards, the penultimate in the first row is the Mach watch
On October 12, however, Yeger made one of the toughest landings of his life — fortunately not on a plane.
That night, Yeger and Glennie went to a club frequented by airport soldiers for dinner. They then rented the club's horses for a ride, and on the way back Yegger proposed to race horses with Glenee. It was getting late, and The leading Ye Ge did not notice that the gate was closed, and the horse crashed into the door, knocking Ye Ge down.
The club's signature
If Boyd knew about it, he would have banned Yegger, because he didn't want to lose the opportunity to make history, and Yegger had to keep his mouth shut. He temporarily approached a doctor outside the airport, and the diagnosis showed Yegger breaking two of his ribs.
On October 14, the ninth mission, Yeger sat in the cockpit, but found himself in pain and unable to open and close the door of the aircraft on his own. In a hurry, the engineer found a broom handle as a lever to help Ye ge close the hatch.
The next process went more smoothly than expected. After the X-1 detached from the bomber, Yeger turned on the rocket engine and slowly accelerated to avoid losing control.
The wingman pilot seized the opportunity of the X-1 to take a photo
When the X-1 reached an altitude of 43,000 feet (about 13.1 kilometers), ground personnel heard a thunderous boom — a sonic boom that proved the plane had broken through the sound barrier. Meanwhile, the X-1's Mach watch exceeded the scale of 1, and the plane was already flying at supersonic speeds. Yeggy enjoyed 20 seconds of flight without much bump before turning off some of its engines and lowering the plane back to subsonic speed.
When the aircraft enters the supersonic speed, it squeezes the sound waves, and the noise shock wave formed is the sonic boom
According to the flight report, Yeger eventually reached a speed of Mach 1.05, becoming the first person in human history to break through the sound barrier and earning a resounding nickname: "The Fastest Living Man".
Several German pilots during World War II, as well as one of Yeger's fellow test pilots, claimed to have broken through the speed of sound in a jet before Yeag. But they did not have auxiliary measuring equipment, and they all relied on the gravitational potential energy of dive to reach extreme speeds, and did not achieve "smooth flight".
Yegg's feats are not without an element of luck, but someone always has to be the "fastest living person". In 1948, shortly after its founding, the U.S. Air Force recognized Yegger's record.
From veteran to influencer
Although Ye ge has been regarded as a legend within the army, Ye Ge in his twenties still has a long way to go. For the next few years, Yeger continued to do a lot of test flight work, and then as a commander, he was sent to various U.S. military stations in Europe and Asia.
In 1968, Yeger was promoted to brigadier general in the United States Air Force, and on February 25, 1975, Yeger officially retired.
But Yeger was reluctant to leave the sky. On October 14, 1997, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first supersonic flight in the history of human aviation, Yeger boarded the F-15D, a cutting-edge fighter of the United States Air Force, and flew supersonically. Yeger named the F-15D "Charming Glenee" — his wife Glene had died of cancer seven years earlier.
"Supersonic flight is refreshing, but it is still a real applause for love"
On the 65th anniversary of 2012, the 89-year-old Yeger boarded the same F-15D as co-pilot and completed supersonic flight again.
Yegger sat in the back
In addition to aviation, Yeger has also made a difference in the space race. In 1961, Yeger came to the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School as a commander. Because of his high school education and strong local accent, Yeger was unable to go into space, but he trained 26 astronauts in a decade.
In 1979, American journalist Tom Wolf published a biographical work, The Right Stuff, which tells the story of some of america's earliest astronauts. These astronauts were all selected by Ye Ge, and Ye Ge became the most important protagonist of the book.
In 1983, Space Pioneer was adapted into a film of the same name, which was not a box office success, but won four Oscars the following year.
Yegger served as the film's technical consultant and also made a cameo appearance as a club bartender
At this time, Ye Ge was widely known, and his deeds, together with the 1987 release of "Top Gun", became the source of motivation for countless young people to join the US Air Force. Americans who yearn for the sky began to learn the West Virginia accent and the domineering speaking style of "Chuck Yeag" humor.
Although Ye Ge, who has experienced hundreds of battles, is not waiting to see "Top Gun"
There were also three flight simulation games published by EA that took the opportunity to apply for naming rights from Yeger, the most famous of which was Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, released in 1991.
The game uses Ye ge's portrait and voice, and the deluxe version of the game also provides an interview with Ye Ge, who talks about the evolution of air combat from World War II to the Cold War, and careful players can use his words as a tutorial for the game.
Millions of dollars in royalties and advertising fees have allowed the Yeger family to live a prosperous life. However, he sued almost all companies and individuals who advertised his name or quotes without permission, and was criticized for "just bad money".
However, an anime called "Strike Witch" seems to have evaded Yeger's lawyer letter without permission.
In the setting of "Strike Witch", the air force is replaced by a witch wearing flying feet, and the protagonist group naturally has to use a real pilot as a prototype. One of the witches, named Charlotte Yeger, has the nickname "Charming Charlie", which is undoubtedly a tribute to Yerg's grandfather.
Charlotte Yeag
Soon someone put Charlotte P in Yeag's picture
Fans found that Yegger was the only character who was still alive when the "Strike Witch" anime was broadcast. A domestic netizen followed Ye Ge's email address to ask Ye Ge's opinion on "Attack witch", but the reply was "no opinion".
Another criticism is aimed at the political views of Yeag, who is a Republican and Trump supporter and suspected of racial discrimination.
In 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, in response to calls for equal rights in society, put a black pilot into Yeag's astronaut training team. The pilot's performance was not bad, but he suffered from Yeger's difficulties and failed to enter space.
Under the tweet announcing Yegger's death, someone reprinted reports about the black astronauts
However, Yegger, who has been particularly loyal to his two wives throughout his life, has great respect for capable female pilots and has a relatively tolerant attitude towards the LGBT community.
Finally, back to the twitter that is widely quoted in this article. Yeger soon learned to use social media and became one of the few influencers among pilots. He tells stories of the past on Twitter and is happy to answer questions from netizens, but he also often makes some controversial remarks.
Yeger, who is in his nineties, is still tweeting with high intensity
"You can't type or talk so don't play Twitter"
It is undeniable that some people just like Ye Ge's outspoken personality.
Even if Yeger is not as great as official propaganda and news reports say, the world is missing a bad old man pilot with a lot of rumors, at least it is a regrettable thing.