RIP Chuck Yeager

 
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adkindo
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 8:30 pm    Post subject: RIP Chuck Yeager

Chuck Yeager passes @ 97 years old. Yeager became a national icon when he became the first man to officially break the sound barrier in 1947. Born and raised in my home state of WV, Yeager has maintained legendary status within the state.

RIP
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 8:58 pm    Post subject:

One of my former junior high teachers is his granddaughter.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:12 pm    Post subject:

From three years ago:

Quote:
Chuck Yeager @GenChuckYeager
· Dec 17, 2017

Dec 17, 1903. It's been 114 years since Wright Brothers 1st powered flight. I met Orville - he was impressed we broke the sound barrier just 44 yrs later.


Pretty amazing life. RIP
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:46 am    Post subject:

The first PC game I ever played was Chuck Yeager's Air Combat.

RIP, sir
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:32 am    Post subject:

I read The Right Stuff by the late Tom Wolfe, it was vastly superior to the movie. The surprise is that you think the book would be astronaut-centric, but much of volume is actually about Chuck Yeager. The film sort of touched on that briefly, when Gordo Cooper is asked by a reporter about the greatest pilot he's ever seen, and he briefly breaks out of his cocky, self-assured character and begins to describe a certain test pilot that he once met. The scene then broke away to Yeager nearly buying the farm during one of his flights. You have to read the book to fully understand the scene.

Yeager was never invited to join the astronaut program as he wasn't a college graduate. The Mercury 7 astronauts endured a rigorous program that tested their physical and emotional strength and endurance under intense pressure. The objective was to see if the astronaut candidates could make the right decision within split seconds when faced with life-threatening danger. That was "the right stuff" that test pilots all talked about, because if you didn't have it you'd die.

Wolf kept hearing about "the right stuff" from the astronauts and pilots, and whenever he tried to get a concrete definition, one name kept coming up over and over again: Chuck Yeager.

Chuck Yeager was the epitome of the right stuff. He would repeatedly push experimental aircraft past their expected performance envelopes, which frequently would result in either setting a new record, or result in a horrifying death. Engineers and scientists needed that data as computer simulation models were an unborn technology, only field tests could provide them with answers. Which is why many test pilots bought the farm back then.

That's what the crash scene in the movie is all about. Yeager wasn't invited to the astronaut program but he wanted to fly into space. He took out one of those God-awful death machines, a Century-series experimental fighter for a unauthorized test flight. The Century-series fighters were semi-rocket craft with short wings, designed for ultra high-altitude level interception of enemy aircraft, or even incoming ICBMs. They were beautiful, but they were also very unforgiving. Yeager shot his craft well beyond it's ceiling, and fired his afterburners in an attempt to make it to space. He damn well nearly succeeded as he sees the stars with startling visibility, up until the inevitable stall. The fighter couldn't handle at that extreme altitude and it broke apart as it plummeted towards Earth. Yeager was forced to eject but as he descended the ejection seat above him dripped molten metal slag on him, burning through his helmet and onto his face. That was pretty much the end of his career.

Yeager was a legend in that small fraternity of pilots. The US government suppressed Yeager's accomplishments as they were deemed national security secrets, but word of mouth spread. Ever wonder why your commercial jet pilot has a slightly southern accent when he's addressing the passengers? It's because he's trying to sound like Chuck Yeager, the aspirational model of what a pilot should be.


Last edited by angrypuppy on Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:36 pm    Post subject:

angrypuppy wrote:
I read The Right Stuff by the late Tom Wolfe, it was vastly superior to the movie.


I saw the flick and tho it was likeable w/ loads of likeable actors such as Goldblum and Ed Harris, just watching that for 3 hrs was difficult. Hate to ask how long the book was. Did Chuck have the same misgivings about not going for the astronaut job as he did in the movie? I like the scene featuring LBJ and Eisenhower in the board room. I remembered being impressed that they found two buggers who looked like them, the LBJ guy being the "effing couch!!!1" guy from The Thing 1982.

The Right Stuff movie's themesong was used in our 1985 championship video as the Lakers' themesong. Heroic and triumphant sounding tune, fit well.

Well-scribed post, that. Interesting. Considering how many test pilots die during that pursuit, it's amazing that Yeager died of naturals, to be honest. There have been deaths in much more sophisticated crafts as well. F14 Tomcat had last second bailouts and crashes and at least one test pilot death caused by a resonance from a loose cable in the first crash. Footage is out there, the gents ejected into a massive fireball as the plane crashed just below them in the trees.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 2:01 pm    Post subject:

non-player zealot wrote:
angrypuppy wrote:
I read The Right Stuff by the late Tom Wolfe, it was vastly superior to the movie.


I saw the flick and tho it was likeable w/ loads of likeable actors such as Goldblum and Ed Harris, just watching that for 3 hrs was difficult. Hate to ask how long the book was. Did Chuck have the same misgivings about not going for the astronaut job as he did in the movie? I like the scene featuring LBJ and Eisenhower in the board room. I remembered being impressed that they found two buggers who looked like them, the LBJ guy being the "effing couch!!!1" guy from The Thing 1982.

The Right Stuff movie's themesong was used in our 1985 championship video as the Lakers' themesong. Heroic and triumphant sounding tune, fit well.

Well-scribed post, that. Interesting. Considering how many test pilots die during that pursuit, it's amazing that Yeager died of naturals, to be honest.



He was both frustrated and envious of the astronauts, but he also openly admired their courage. One scene in the movie (but not in the book) portrays that: Someone sharing a drink with Yeager opines that the astronauts didn't really require skill, that monkeys had been successfully substituted for early space travel. Yeager objects by telling him that monkeys don't volunteer for suicide missions, and monkeys don't know that they're sitting in a rocket that might explode.

I felt the movie was a tad too long and had a few campy moments. There was one comical sequence from the book that wasn't in the script, but pretty much illustrated Yeager's lack of fame. The Brits released a movie entitled, Breaking the Sound Barrier. The publicist was asked to invite Yeager to handle interviews after the premier. One reporter asked what it was like to be the first American to break the sound barrier, without realizing that: A. The movie was fiction, and B. Yeager wasn't just the first American, he was the very first human being to break the sound barrier.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:18 pm    Post subject:

angrypuppy wrote:
't know that they're sitting in a rocket that might explode.

I felt the movie was a tad too long and had a few campy moments. There was one comical sequence from the book that wasn't in the script, but pretty much illustrated Yeager's lack of fame. The Brits released a movie entitled, Breaking the Sound Barrier. The publicist was asked to invite Yeager to handle interviews after the premier. One reporter asked what it was like to be the first American to break the sound barrier, without realizing that: A. The movie was fiction, and B. Yeager wasn't just the first American, he was the very first human being to break the sound barrier.


Those damned Brits. Sounds like something they'd pull. To this day, they don't wanna give a Yank credit for anything. That goes for our efforts in WWII. Took em forever to consider our art as worthy of being placed in their hotty-totty museums. The Brit extras in Star Wars 79 was even razzing the Yank actors in the final scene as they walked thru an audience to receive their awards. To quote Gordon Gekko: "Like all Brits, he thinks he was born with a better pot to piss in."
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:49 pm    Post subject:

Hadn’t realized that he outlived Sam Shepard who portrayed him on the big screen. It’s one of my favorite roles of all time. RIP to both gentlemen.
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