Chuck Yeager: First Pilot To Break Sound Barrier Dies Aged 97

Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the first pilot ever to break the sound barrier, has died at the age of 97.

His wife, Victoria Yeager, announced on his Twitter account that he died on Monday, saying he "will be remembered forever".

The American World War Two fighter pilot ace and test pilot flew faster than the speed of sound for the first time in 1947 and at the time, it was considered a daunting aviation milestone.

At 24-years-old, Brigadier General Yaeger, a captain at the time, pushed an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660mph.

Brig Gen Yeager nicknamed the rocket plane, and all his other aircraft, Glamorous Glennis, after his wife, who died in 1990.

"Sure, I was apprehensive," he said in 1968. "When you’re fooling around with something you don’t know much about, there has to be apprehension.

"But you don’t let that affect your job."

Brig Gen Yeager said in 1947 he could have achieved even faster speeds had the plane carried more fuel. 

He summed the ride up as "nice, just like riding fast in a car".

Tributes have poured in following news of his death.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Brig Gen Yeager’s death is "a tremendous loss" to America.

"Gen Yeager’s pioneering and innovative spirit advanced America’s abilities in the sky and set our nation’s dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age.

"He said: 'You don’t concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done'," Mr Bridenstine added.

From a small town in West Virginia, Brig Gen Yaeger flew for more than 60 years, including flying an X-15 to near 1,000mph at Edwards Air Force Base in California in 2002 at the age of 79.

He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1941, going on to work initially as an aircraft mechanic before signing up for a programme that allowed enlisted men to become pilots.

During World War Two, Yeager shot down 13 German planes on 64 missions, including five on a single mission.

He was once shot down over German-held France but escaped with the help of French partisans.

After the war, he became a test pilot beginning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Brig Gen Yeager was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. 

Cover image: Brig Gen Yeager prepares to board a F-15D Eagle to mark the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier in 2012 (Picture: US Department of Defense).