12 ms·

Chuck Yeager has died

636 points by awnird 6y ago

lucd 6y ago
...
- Kye 6y ago
  The "we miss you" suggests they're older, possibly pre-pandemic photos.
  - detaro 6y ago
    from january to be specific: https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager/status/1219122044371132417 https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager/status/121912204437113241...
- luc_ 6y ago
  What is the point of this comment?
  - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
    He’s speculating that Yeager died of COVID-19 and assigning blame to Yeager himself as the cause.
    - adventured 6y ago
      Those are older photos, so the amusement is the poster comes across as especially ignorant in their trolling attempt to tear down the great Chuck Yeager.
    - luc_ 6y ago
      Thanks Captain Obvious...
- gatkinso 6y ago
  disgraceful comment
melling 6y ago
44 years after the Wright Brothers first flew 120 feet, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. 22 years after that, man landed on moon. 51 years later ... still waiting for the future to arrive.
- medium_burrito 6y ago
  Hopefully not for long. Tomorrow hopefully will be a big step forward with SpaceX's 12.5km hop. EDIT: Or the Israeli ex-gov guy saying "It was definitely aliens".
  - Zhenya 6y ago
    Context for aliens: https://m.jpost.com/omg/former-israeli-space-security-chief-says-aliens-exist-humanity-not-ready-651405 https://m.jpost.com/omg/former-israeli-space-security-chief-...
    - softwaredoug 6y ago
      Would watch this Netflix show
    - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
      Hopefully Commander Orange was kept in the dark about this. Then again the aliens can just use a neuralizer on him and we might be spared the coming inane tweet storms.
    - awiesenhofer 6y ago
      > Eshed provided more information in his newest book, ... Ah, that explains it.
- hourislate 6y ago
  'We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters" - Peter Thiel
  - standardUser 6y ago
mikepurvis 6y ago
It's a bit painful seeing what else his spouse tweets about other than this announcement, but I guess that is the price of getting this kind of news directly from Twitter rather than a conventional news source. :(
- projectileboy 6y ago
  He was who he was. It doesn’t diminish his greatness.
  - mikepurvis 6y ago
    It's unfortunate, is all. For someone this distinguished, with a career spanning decades, to have their announcement of death go up alongside a bunch of nonsense conspiracy theory retweets. It's just seedy— it's like if the official obituary was published in the Enquirer.
    - samatman 6y ago
      It's none of your business, and it says a lot about you that you'd pollute a tribute thread with this kind of irrelevant partisan disgust-reflex. No one cares what you think about his wife's tweets, man.
sitkack 6y ago
At some point everyone's speed relative to ground goes to zero.
exabrial 6y ago
One of the coolest things I ever did was call him on the phone in 7th grade, and no joke, his secretary put him on the phone and I got to talk to him for a few minutes. He was nice to talk to, and humorously, had recently fallen off a horse... Again. I was obsessed with the Discovery channel x-planes series, and ended up doing a video project for a local history day competition. My project partner's dad worked for an defense company, happened to know a guy that knew a guy that had his phone number. Probably one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me.
- KumaKumaKuma 6y ago
  I'm surprised by this. He lived in the town I grew up in, and we were told repeatedly to not visit/call/attempt to interview him. One of my friends tried anyway, and the interview was mostly grumbles about reading his book instead of asking stupid questions. He was known to be a sourpuss and to not hesitate hitting people with his cane.
  - spike021 6y ago
    Maybe he changed along the way, maybe not. But I found his Twitter feed pretty fascinating since he (or maybe his wife or somebody else) would answer questions tweeted at him. Seemed pretty open to me for someone of his age and importance.
    - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
      To be fair, twitter is a lot less invasive and disruptive than phone calls.
      - spike021 6y ago
        Eh, I'd say it's relative. In my experience it isn't so different for the older generation, since they aren't as used to being so available/visible. It's difficult to know how he would've felt about it, though.
pyuser583 6y ago
This is really sad. He was one of the greats.
nailer 6y ago
It's not a great day for flying.
- nailer 6y ago
  (if people aren't familiar, that's a reference to the Chuck Yeager's Air Combat flight sim)
Exmoor 6y ago
I was really into flight when I was a kid. Sometime before I was a teenager my mom found Chuck Yeager's autobiography at a garage sale and thought I might be interested in it. Who would've guessed that the Edwards AFB test pilots flight adventures would pale in comparison to their off base antics at the local bar/brothel. Apparently not my mother. RIP Mr. Yeager, I learned more about life from you than I expected to.
fabiensanglard 6y ago
I first heard of that name with Chuck Yeager's Air Combat on MS-DOS. An amazing game associated to hours of good time.
- dguaraglia 6y ago
  Same here. That game was amazing.
  - ansible 6y ago
    It had a decent physics engine for the time, which I appreciated. They talked about the basics of flight, energy management, maneuvers, and more. Chuck would yell out "Check Six!" when an enemy was coming up behind you.
    - dguaraglia 6y ago
      One of my favorite memories about that game was having to reverse engineer their anti-copying system. Growing up in Latin America getting legit games wasn't really a thing (both because of cost, but also availability), so I remember getting a copy of that game from a friend, who had copied it from a friend, etc. I don't know if you recall, but the system worked by asking you a random question from the user manual ('what is the altitude ceiling for the MIG-15?', 'what is the maximum speed for the B-29 bomber?', etc.) My friend knew only one of the answers, which he wrote on a piece of paper for me. To start the game, I'd have to restart it a bunch of times until it asked me that specific question. Of course, that sucked so every time it'd ask a question we started taking notes and finding the answer from the awesome in-game plane database next time I got it to run... within a couple days we had transcribed most of the answers. It was my first encounter with such a security system and got me really interested in reverse engineering, which got me interested in understanding how programs worked... which ended in me being here 30 years later :)
- marcins 6y ago
  I can still hear the slightly tinny / distorted "Welcome to Chuck Yeager's Air Combat!" in my head. Good memories for sure. EDIT: Nice, it's playable in a browser here: https://playclassic.games/games/combat-flight-simulator-dos-games-online/play-chuck-yeagers-air-combat-online/play/ https://playclassic.games/games/combat-flight-simulator-dos-...
sswaner 6y ago
He was one of my earliest heroes. The movie "The Right Stuff" was released in 1983, when I was 12 years old. The movie and Yeager's autobiography, "Yeager, and Autobiography" were frequently consumed during my teenage years. I often watch the right stuff right up to that moment that the focus shifts away from Yeager. I learned plenty from Yeager's story and his accomplishments. I admired how he became a pilot in WWII, as a "Flying Sergeant", how he worked to break the sound barrier, and how he sought combat commands in Korea and Vietnam. Today, I am reminded of one minor anecdote that had a big impact. In the book, Yeager describes the treatment he used to avoid permanent burn damage from his F-104 accident in 1963. During college I crashed on my mountain bike and suffered road rash on the left side of my face. The ER doctor advised me that I should expect permanent scars. Remember Yeager's treatment for his face, I used the same (an alternating application of Vaseline and Hydrogen Peroxide). The treatment left me with no scars, just as it left Yeager with no scars. The lesson for me is that we can learn valuable knowledge in unexpected places, but we have to seek it out. Having heroes, respected authors, interesting subjects, and/or a focus of curiosity is a great way to learn and become inspired. Chuck Yeager met many of these for me, from 1983 when I first found him, to recent years enjoying his Twitter feed. He was a larger than life legend who encouraged me to be more daring, and saved me from permanent scars. Godspeed General Yeager
- com2kid 6y ago
  > I used the same (an alternating application of Vaseline and Hydrogen Peroxide). The treatment left me with no scars, just as it left Yeager with no scars. There is 0 references to this treatment methodology online, do you mind explaining further? (I was shocked google books didn't even pull an excerpt!)
  - sswaner 6y ago
    That is a good question that the parent comment has prompted me to consider. As mentioned above, I have attributed the specifics to the Yeager biography for many years, but incorrectly. My treatment was to apply Vaseline to my wounds to keep them soft, then 2-3 times per day to scrub the wound with a gauze pad soaked in hydrogen peroxide. It was very painful, but resulted in none of the predicted scars. Similar to Yaeger's treatment, but different in the specifics (as further review pointed out to me). I am not a doctor, please don't follow any medical advice I share. As for the 0 references, I found 1 (or .5, it only mentions Hydrogen Peroxide): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23561480/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23561480/ In addition, I found the following: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5752/can-burn-scars-be-avoided-by-repeated-scraping https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5752/can-burn-s... http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=37867 http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=37867
nosmokewhereiam 6y ago
His last tweet was professional and sort of sums him up in an eloquent, serene way. "@usairforce first time I flew M2-F1 lifting body. Handled fine.”
SamReidHughes 6y ago
I recommend his autobiography ("Yeager") -- it's briskly paced and readable. On the fun side, here's his appearance on "What's My Line": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Tywtn5UJI&t=2m46s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Tywtn5UJI&t=2m46s
MichaelZuo 6y ago
Truly one of the last of the old breed. Rest in peace General Yeager! To have have grown up in a world where ocean liners and steam locomotives were the primary means of long distance transportation to have experienced the cutting edge, making history along the way, then to have lived to see the modern age must truly have been wonderous.
spike021 6y ago
I'm a kid of the 90's but my dad loves "The Right Stuff" so I grew up on that film. Such a cool story. Sorry to see he has passed.
pgreenwood 6y ago
Check out this great 1.5 hour interview with Chuck Yeager from 1991. His comments on NASA were particularly interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqLOBPl_zLc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqLOBPl_zLc
nickhalfasleep 6y ago
From time to time, he would answer questions on Twitter. Once someone asked him “What did you think of the (German fighter jet) Me-262 the first time you saw it?” His response: “The first time I saw an Me-262, I shot it down.” A fast eye and a cool hand, a marksman who progressed and thrived through an incredible amount of changing technology. Also incredibly patient with that technology, which is why he was great test pilot as well.
- geoka9 6y ago
  If I remember correctly, he had to lay in ambush over the airfield where the Me-262s flew from, and wait for one to be at its most vulnerable (on the final approach while landing). Then he swooped down and opened up with his cannon. The speed disadvantage was so large, that he would have no chance otherwise. But it's a cool answer :)
  - ethbr0 6y ago
    You win playing by the rules of physics, not what the other person thinks the rules are.
  - robotnikman 6y ago
    The speed disadvantage between the P-51 and ME-262 is not as bad as you think. Plus the difference in weapons would be in the P-51's favor, the ME-262 was armed with low velocity 30mm guns great for taking out bombers, but not great for dogfighting other fighters, meanwhile the .50 cal machineguns on the P-51 could open fire at around 800m and accurately score some hits. The main problem with the ME-262 vs the P-51 was the Me-262 was still a little faster, so it could just decide to run away if it wanted to instead of engaging. Ultimately though it didn't come down to what you were flying, it comes down to pilot skill.
dfsegoat 6y ago
If you've ever noticed the unique cool, calm and confident manner of speech that airline pilots have on the intercom / ATC net, it was Yeager who developed that attitude and style of speaking [1, 2] within pilot culture. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(book) [2] https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/silky-smooth-chuck-yeager-voice/ https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/silky-smooth-c...
- dingaling 6y ago
  I'm sure Mr Yeager had an excellent style, but ATC radiotelephony procedures were developed in the 1930s and standardised by the ICAO in the early 1950s.
  - philshem 6y ago
    GP refers to attitude and style, not procedure. I've looked up the ATC audio of commercial pilots that I know, and despite being 100% from the Northeast US, they talk to ATC with a slow and mild drawl.
    - studius 6y ago
      The depth of the voice matters also: https://www.ricemedia.co/the-science-behind-hating-someone-for-their-voice/ https://www.ricemedia.co/the-science-behind-hating-someone-f...
  - hliyan 6y ago
    I think you misread the parent comment. He's referring to the understated, almost nonchalant tone of voice all modern aviators and astronauts use, even during emergencies.
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      How else would they talk during an emergency? Do you think they'd shout and panic? Why?
Dig1t 6y ago
A few weeks ago his account tweeted this: > Nov 28, 1964 – Launch: Mariner 4, NASA launches the first Mars fly-by spacecraft. Unmanned exploration is what @NASA should stick to. Was this really his opinion?
wnevets 6y ago
Since this is linked his to twitter, its interesting to note he has been very active on twitter. I've been following him for a while and he was always answering people questions.
WalterBright 6y ago
Chuck Yeager, James Doolittle - lives so incredible nobody would believe it if it wasn't true. It's why I tend to read more history books than fiction nowadays.
RIDDLERTHIS 6y ago
Sad day but his past courage propelled us to new heights in similar ways his death will. Through remembrance and lessons learned. I've known his nephew for some time and he has a collection of very cool trinkets and memorabilia. Rest in peace general!
szundi 6y ago
Please be like (a chairman) Chuck and try Kerbal Space Program. When you finished, install the RP-1 mod to stretch yourself even further. You can get some idea/sense how dangerous and rewarding what Chuck did back then.
- moron4hire 6y ago
  After reading about how Squad screwed over their developers, I regret having paid for the game.
  - mmcdermott 6y ago
    I hadn't heard about this and I have the game sitting in my backlog. Do you have a link about what happened?
    - moron4hire 6y ago
      https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/4hw5x7/in_regards_to_pdtvs_post_damion_rayne_former_ksp/ https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/4hw5x7/...
      - mmcdermott 6y ago
        Sounds like a small scale EA. It's sad how commonplace that seems to be in the games industry.
renewiltord 6y ago
This guy is fascinating and has such a rich history. As with many people with decorated history, though, he had some blind spots. One of these was that he was thoroughly enamoured with his own skill at training an air force: > Q: Of all the pilots you've flown iwth, which do you respect the most and why?A: In 1971-73, I flew with the Pakistan Air Force in the war with India. They were the best in the world because they had the most experience - over 75 hours/month. In 1971, the PAF was decisively routed after attempting a pre-emptive strike, leaving their navy (and soon they were gone too) and their ground forces with no air cover. The outcome was that Pakistan was split in two and lost half her territory despite the US dispatching the USS Enterprise (with Task Force 74) and the UK dispatching the HMS Eagle in support.
- kortilla 6y ago
  A perfectly trained air force is not immune to poor strategy.
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    He was present, advising, and convinced they won in the air. Instead all they had in the end was that their opponent had air superiority in their Eastern theatre shortly after they reacted to the Pakistani pre-emptive strike. It was decided in days. You really have to read Yeager: An Autobiography. It's pp 396-398. He was really convinced they were killing it. Neutral claims, of course, showed they were getting pummeled in comparison. His claimed 3-to-1 kill ratio was more like a 3-to-5. > The Pakistanis whipped their asses in the sky...The air war lasted two weeks, and the Pakistanis scored a three-to-one kill ratio.
- elSidCampeador 6y ago
  His own aircraft (painted in United Nations colours) was destroyed on the ground by a man who went on to be India's Navy Chief many years later. His account of the engagement makes for a good read, and there's a paragraph on Yeager's reaction to the destruction of the plane too - > I never found out how the UN reacted to the destruction of its plane, but Yeager's response was anything but dispassionate. He raged to his cowering colleagues at a staff meeting. His voice resounding through the embassy, he proclaimed that the Indian pilot not only knew exactly what he was doing but had been specifically instructed by Indira Gandhi to blast Yeager's plane. In his book he later said that it was the Indian way of giving Uncle Sam "the finger" http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/history/1971war/1278-chuck-yeager.html#gsc.tab=0 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/history/1971war/1278-chuck...
snerbles 6y ago
A small anecdote, I had the opportunity to shake the retired General Yeager's hand at a swearing-in ceremony at Beale AFB in 2006. He seemed a bit tired after a long day in the Central Valley summer heat, and quite grumpy with a gaggle of NCOs from the recruiting office that asked him for an autograph. As it turns out his physician grounded him from flying his private plane earlier that week and I imagine that put him into quite the mood!
parkersweb 6y ago
A similarly noteworthy pilot is Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown - a guy who holds the records for most aircraft carrier deck landings and has flown more models of aircraft than anyone in history. This interview with him is definitely worth a listen as he was also involved in so many moments of 20th century history! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nvgq1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nvgq1
arh68 6y ago
Too bad. Just yesterday I was looking at Yeager quotes [1], these stood out as possibly similar to software, take what you will There is no such thing as a natural born pilot. Whatever my aptitudes or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime’s learning experience. For the best pilots, flying is an obsession, the one thing in life they must do continually. The best pilots fly more than the others; that’s why they’re the best. Experience is everything. The eagerness to learn how and why every piece of equipment works is everything. And luck is everything, too. Everybody that I’ve ever seen that enjoyed their job was very good at it. [1] I'm still looking for the quote about engine design, "few moving parts", easily mantained..
- williamdclt 6y ago
  I like this quote! It's pretty applicable for all artisan-like activity, I think. It's well said and worth repeating over and over in different ways, but I wouldn't say it's a novel insight
- aynyc 6y ago
  Honestly, I think XXX is an obsession is an aptitude or talent in itself.
  - Raidion 6y ago
    Yea, it's easy to understand if you want to do something well, you need to spend a ton of time focused on it. It's another to actually commit that time and show up day in and day out with a mindset that's fresh and always looking for ways to improve. I think the purity of purpose and sense of adventure is what attracts a lot of people to stories like Chuck's.
- SEJeff 6y ago
  Pretty sure that quote was in his Autobiography. I recall reading it when I read that book.
rmason 6y ago
Yeager wanted to be an astronaut but he lacked a college degree so NASA wouldn't let him. But they decided he was good enough to run the school that trained astronauts!
scarygliders 6y ago
RIP Chuck Yeager. You are a rare case of a verifiable legend. Legends never die.
xbar 6y ago
Godspeed, General.
SEJeff 6y ago
If you've never read it, his biography reads like an action movie starting Tom Cruise, but it is his real life story. Seriously, this is an amazing book: https://www.amazon.com/Yeager-Autobiography-Chuck/dp/0553256742 https://www.amazon.com/Yeager-Autobiography-Chuck/dp/0553256... He was a two time fighter ace in WWII and broke the speed of sound. He almost died in a crash once as well, but walked away with half of his face burned up. The guy was incredible.
utxaa 6y ago
amazing how such a racist asshole is celebrated. he's responsible for kicking the one black astronaut out from the mercury program. google it.
thehealthycoder 6y ago
Amazing guy, his challenges and the way he dealt with them, over his lifetime could teach a lot about handling stress and pressure.

636 points by awnird 6y ago

lucd 6y ago

...

Kye 6y ago
The "we miss you" suggests they're older, possibly pre-pandemic photos.
- detaro 6y ago
  from january to be specific: https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager/status/1219122044371132417 https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager/status/121912204437113241...
luc_ 6y ago
What is the point of this comment?
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  He’s speculating that Yeager died of COVID-19 and assigning blame to Yeager himself as the cause.
  - adventured 6y ago
    Those are older photos, so the amusement is the poster comes across as especially ignorant in their trolling attempt to tear down the great Chuck Yeager.
  - luc_ 6y ago
    Thanks Captain Obvious...
gatkinso 6y ago
disgraceful comment

melling 6y ago

44 years after the Wright Brothers first flew 120 feet, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. 22 years after that, man landed on moon. 51 years later ... still waiting for the future to arrive.

medium_burrito 6y ago
Hopefully not for long. Tomorrow hopefully will be a big step forward with SpaceX's 12.5km hop. EDIT: Or the Israeli ex-gov guy saying "It was definitely aliens".
- Zhenya 6y ago
  Context for aliens: https://m.jpost.com/omg/former-israeli-space-security-chief-says-aliens-exist-humanity-not-ready-651405 https://m.jpost.com/omg/former-israeli-space-security-chief-...
  - softwaredoug 6y ago
    Would watch this Netflix show
  - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
    Hopefully Commander Orange was kept in the dark about this. Then again the aliens can just use a neuralizer on him and we might be spared the coming inane tweet storms.
  - awiesenhofer 6y ago
    > Eshed provided more information in his newest book, ... Ah, that explains it.
hourislate 6y ago
'We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters" - Peter Thiel
- standardUser 6y ago

mikepurvis 6y ago

It's a bit painful seeing what else his spouse tweets about other than this announcement, but I guess that is the price of getting this kind of news directly from Twitter rather than a conventional news source. :(

projectileboy 6y ago
He was who he was. It doesn’t diminish his greatness.
- mikepurvis 6y ago
  It's unfortunate, is all. For someone this distinguished, with a career spanning decades, to have their announcement of death go up alongside a bunch of nonsense conspiracy theory retweets. It's just seedy— it's like if the official obituary was published in the Enquirer.
  - samatman 6y ago
    It's none of your business, and it says a lot about you that you'd pollute a tribute thread with this kind of irrelevant partisan disgust-reflex. No one cares what you think about his wife's tweets, man.

sitkack 6y ago

At some point everyone's speed relative to ground goes to zero.

exabrial 6y ago

One of the coolest things I ever did was call him on the phone in 7th grade, and no joke, his secretary put him on the phone and I got to talk to him for a few minutes. He was nice to talk to, and humorously, had recently fallen off a horse... Again. I was obsessed with the Discovery channel x-planes series, and ended up doing a video project for a local history day competition. My project partner's dad worked for an defense company, happened to know a guy that knew a guy that had his phone number. Probably one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me.

KumaKumaKuma 6y ago
I'm surprised by this. He lived in the town I grew up in, and we were told repeatedly to not visit/call/attempt to interview him. One of my friends tried anyway, and the interview was mostly grumbles about reading his book instead of asking stupid questions. He was known to be a sourpuss and to not hesitate hitting people with his cane.
- spike021 6y ago
  Maybe he changed along the way, maybe not. But I found his Twitter feed pretty fascinating since he (or maybe his wife or somebody else) would answer questions tweeted at him. Seemed pretty open to me for someone of his age and importance.
  - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
    To be fair, twitter is a lot less invasive and disruptive than phone calls.
    - spike021 6y ago
      Eh, I'd say it's relative. In my experience it isn't so different for the older generation, since they aren't as used to being so available/visible. It's difficult to know how he would've felt about it, though.

pyuser583 6y ago

This is really sad. He was one of the greats.

nailer 6y ago

It's not a great day for flying.

nailer 6y ago
(if people aren't familiar, that's a reference to the Chuck Yeager's Air Combat flight sim)

Exmoor 6y ago

I was really into flight when I was a kid. Sometime before I was a teenager my mom found Chuck Yeager's autobiography at a garage sale and thought I might be interested in it. Who would've guessed that the Edwards AFB test pilots flight adventures would pale in comparison to their off base antics at the local bar/brothel. Apparently not my mother. RIP Mr. Yeager, I learned more about life from you than I expected to.

fabiensanglard 6y ago

I first heard of that name with Chuck Yeager's Air Combat on MS-DOS. An amazing game associated to hours of good time.

dguaraglia 6y ago
Same here. That game was amazing.
- ansible 6y ago
  It had a decent physics engine for the time, which I appreciated. They talked about the basics of flight, energy management, maneuvers, and more. Chuck would yell out "Check Six!" when an enemy was coming up behind you.
  - dguaraglia 6y ago
    One of my favorite memories about that game was having to reverse engineer their anti-copying system. Growing up in Latin America getting legit games wasn't really a thing (both because of cost, but also availability), so I remember getting a copy of that game from a friend, who had copied it from a friend, etc. I don't know if you recall, but the system worked by asking you a random question from the user manual ('what is the altitude ceiling for the MIG-15?', 'what is the maximum speed for the B-29 bomber?', etc.) My friend knew only one of the answers, which he wrote on a piece of paper for me. To start the game, I'd have to restart it a bunch of times until it asked me that specific question. Of course, that sucked so every time it'd ask a question we started taking notes and finding the answer from the awesome in-game plane database next time I got it to run... within a couple days we had transcribed most of the answers. It was my first encounter with such a security system and got me really interested in reverse engineering, which got me interested in understanding how programs worked... which ended in me being here 30 years later :)
marcins 6y ago
I can still hear the slightly tinny / distorted "Welcome to Chuck Yeager's Air Combat!" in my head. Good memories for sure. EDIT: Nice, it's playable in a browser here: https://playclassic.games/games/combat-flight-simulator-dos-games-online/play-chuck-yeagers-air-combat-online/play/ https://playclassic.games/games/combat-flight-simulator-dos-...

sswaner 6y ago

He was one of my earliest heroes. The movie "The Right Stuff" was released in 1983, when I was 12 years old. The movie and Yeager's autobiography, "Yeager, and Autobiography" were frequently consumed during my teenage years. I often watch the right stuff right up to that moment that the focus shifts away from Yeager. I learned plenty from Yeager's story and his accomplishments. I admired how he became a pilot in WWII, as a "Flying Sergeant", how he worked to break the sound barrier, and how he sought combat commands in Korea and Vietnam. Today, I am reminded of one minor anecdote that had a big impact. In the book, Yeager describes the treatment he used to avoid permanent burn damage from his F-104 accident in 1963. During college I crashed on my mountain bike and suffered road rash on the left side of my face. The ER doctor advised me that I should expect permanent scars. Remember Yeager's treatment for his face, I used the same (an alternating application of Vaseline and Hydrogen Peroxide). The treatment left me with no scars, just as it left Yeager with no scars. The lesson for me is that we can learn valuable knowledge in unexpected places, but we have to seek it out. Having heroes, respected authors, interesting subjects, and/or a focus of curiosity is a great way to learn and become inspired. Chuck Yeager met many of these for me, from 1983 when I first found him, to recent years enjoying his Twitter feed. He was a larger than life legend who encouraged me to be more daring, and saved me from permanent scars. Godspeed General Yeager

com2kid 6y ago
> I used the same (an alternating application of Vaseline and Hydrogen Peroxide). The treatment left me with no scars, just as it left Yeager with no scars. There is 0 references to this treatment methodology online, do you mind explaining further? (I was shocked google books didn't even pull an excerpt!)
- sswaner 6y ago
  That is a good question that the parent comment has prompted me to consider. As mentioned above, I have attributed the specifics to the Yeager biography for many years, but incorrectly. My treatment was to apply Vaseline to my wounds to keep them soft, then 2-3 times per day to scrub the wound with a gauze pad soaked in hydrogen peroxide. It was very painful, but resulted in none of the predicted scars. Similar to Yaeger's treatment, but different in the specifics (as further review pointed out to me). I am not a doctor, please don't follow any medical advice I share. As for the 0 references, I found 1 (or .5, it only mentions Hydrogen Peroxide): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23561480/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23561480/ In addition, I found the following: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5752/can-burn-scars-be-avoided-by-repeated-scraping https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5752/can-burn-s... http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=37867 http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=37867

nosmokewhereiam 6y ago

His last tweet was professional and sort of sums him up in an eloquent, serene way. "@usairforce first time I flew M2-F1 lifting body. Handled fine.”

SamReidHughes 6y ago

I recommend his autobiography ("Yeager") -- it's briskly paced and readable. On the fun side, here's his appearance on "What's My Line": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Tywtn5UJI&t=2m46s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Tywtn5UJI&t=2m46s

MichaelZuo 6y ago

Truly one of the last of the old breed. Rest in peace General Yeager! To have have grown up in a world where ocean liners and steam locomotives were the primary means of long distance transportation to have experienced the cutting edge, making history along the way, then to have lived to see the modern age must truly have been wonderous.

spike021 6y ago

I'm a kid of the 90's but my dad loves "The Right Stuff" so I grew up on that film. Such a cool story. Sorry to see he has passed.

pgreenwood 6y ago

Check out this great 1.5 hour interview with Chuck Yeager from 1991. His comments on NASA were particularly interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqLOBPl_zLc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqLOBPl_zLc

nickhalfasleep 6y ago

From time to time, he would answer questions on Twitter. Once someone asked him “What did you think of the (German fighter jet) Me-262 the first time you saw it?” His response: “The first time I saw an Me-262, I shot it down.” A fast eye and a cool hand, a marksman who progressed and thrived through an incredible amount of changing technology. Also incredibly patient with that technology, which is why he was great test pilot as well.

geoka9 6y ago
If I remember correctly, he had to lay in ambush over the airfield where the Me-262s flew from, and wait for one to be at its most vulnerable (on the final approach while landing). Then he swooped down and opened up with his cannon. The speed disadvantage was so large, that he would have no chance otherwise. But it's a cool answer :)
- ethbr0 6y ago
  You win playing by the rules of physics, not what the other person thinks the rules are.
- robotnikman 6y ago
  The speed disadvantage between the P-51 and ME-262 is not as bad as you think. Plus the difference in weapons would be in the P-51's favor, the ME-262 was armed with low velocity 30mm guns great for taking out bombers, but not great for dogfighting other fighters, meanwhile the .50 cal machineguns on the P-51 could open fire at around 800m and accurately score some hits. The main problem with the ME-262 vs the P-51 was the Me-262 was still a little faster, so it could just decide to run away if it wanted to instead of engaging. Ultimately though it didn't come down to what you were flying, it comes down to pilot skill.

dfsegoat 6y ago

If you've ever noticed the unique cool, calm and confident manner of speech that airline pilots have on the intercom / ATC net, it was Yeager who developed that attitude and style of speaking [1, 2] within pilot culture. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(book) [2] https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/silky-smooth-chuck-yeager-voice/ https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/silky-smooth-c...

dingaling 6y ago
I'm sure Mr Yeager had an excellent style, but ATC radiotelephony procedures were developed in the 1930s and standardised by the ICAO in the early 1950s.
- philshem 6y ago
  GP refers to attitude and style, not procedure. I've looked up the ATC audio of commercial pilots that I know, and despite being 100% from the Northeast US, they talk to ATC with a slow and mild drawl.
  - studius 6y ago
    The depth of the voice matters also: https://www.ricemedia.co/the-science-behind-hating-someone-for-their-voice/ https://www.ricemedia.co/the-science-behind-hating-someone-f...
- hliyan 6y ago
  I think you misread the parent comment. He's referring to the understated, almost nonchalant tone of voice all modern aviators and astronauts use, even during emergencies.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    How else would they talk during an emergency? Do you think they'd shout and panic? Why?

Dig1t 6y ago

A few weeks ago his account tweeted this: > Nov 28, 1964 – Launch: Mariner 4, NASA launches the first Mars fly-by spacecraft. Unmanned exploration is what @NASA should stick to. Was this really his opinion?

wnevets 6y ago

Since this is linked his to twitter, its interesting to note he has been very active on twitter. I've been following him for a while and he was always answering people questions.

WalterBright 6y ago

Chuck Yeager, James Doolittle - lives so incredible nobody would believe it if it wasn't true. It's why I tend to read more history books than fiction nowadays.

RIDDLERTHIS 6y ago

Sad day but his past courage propelled us to new heights in similar ways his death will. Through remembrance and lessons learned. I've known his nephew for some time and he has a collection of very cool trinkets and memorabilia. Rest in peace general!

szundi 6y ago

Please be like (a chairman) Chuck and try Kerbal Space Program. When you finished, install the RP-1 mod to stretch yourself even further. You can get some idea/sense how dangerous and rewarding what Chuck did back then.

moron4hire 6y ago
After reading about how Squad screwed over their developers, I regret having paid for the game.
- mmcdermott 6y ago
  I hadn't heard about this and I have the game sitting in my backlog. Do you have a link about what happened?
  - moron4hire 6y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/4hw5x7/in_regards_to_pdtvs_post_damion_rayne_former_ksp/ https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/4hw5x7/...
    - mmcdermott 6y ago
      Sounds like a small scale EA. It's sad how commonplace that seems to be in the games industry.

renewiltord 6y ago

This guy is fascinating and has such a rich history. As with many people with decorated history, though, he had some blind spots. One of these was that he was thoroughly enamoured with his own skill at training an air force: > Q: Of all the pilots you've flown iwth, which do you respect the most and why?A: In 1971-73, I flew with the Pakistan Air Force in the war with India. They were the best in the world because they had the most experience - over 75 hours/month. In 1971, the PAF was decisively routed after attempting a pre-emptive strike, leaving their navy (and soon they were gone too) and their ground forces with no air cover. The outcome was that Pakistan was split in two and lost half her territory despite the US dispatching the USS Enterprise (with Task Force 74) and the UK dispatching the HMS Eagle in support.

kortilla 6y ago
A perfectly trained air force is not immune to poor strategy.
- renewiltord 6y ago
  He was present, advising, and convinced they won in the air. Instead all they had in the end was that their opponent had air superiority in their Eastern theatre shortly after they reacted to the Pakistani pre-emptive strike. It was decided in days. You really have to read Yeager: An Autobiography. It's pp 396-398. He was really convinced they were killing it. Neutral claims, of course, showed they were getting pummeled in comparison. His claimed 3-to-1 kill ratio was more like a 3-to-5. > The Pakistanis whipped their asses in the sky...The air war lasted two weeks, and the Pakistanis scored a three-to-one kill ratio.
elSidCampeador 6y ago
His own aircraft (painted in United Nations colours) was destroyed on the ground by a man who went on to be India's Navy Chief many years later. His account of the engagement makes for a good read, and there's a paragraph on Yeager's reaction to the destruction of the plane too - > I never found out how the UN reacted to the destruction of its plane, but Yeager's response was anything but dispassionate. He raged to his cowering colleagues at a staff meeting. His voice resounding through the embassy, he proclaimed that the Indian pilot not only knew exactly what he was doing but had been specifically instructed by Indira Gandhi to blast Yeager's plane. In his book he later said that it was the Indian way of giving Uncle Sam "the finger" http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/history/1971war/1278-chuck-yeager.html#gsc.tab=0 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/history/1971war/1278-chuck...

snerbles 6y ago

A small anecdote, I had the opportunity to shake the retired General Yeager's hand at a swearing-in ceremony at Beale AFB in 2006. He seemed a bit tired after a long day in the Central Valley summer heat, and quite grumpy with a gaggle of NCOs from the recruiting office that asked him for an autograph. As it turns out his physician grounded him from flying his private plane earlier that week and I imagine that put him into quite the mood!

parkersweb 6y ago

A similarly noteworthy pilot is Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown - a guy who holds the records for most aircraft carrier deck landings and has flown more models of aircraft than anyone in history. This interview with him is definitely worth a listen as he was also involved in so many moments of 20th century history! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nvgq1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nvgq1

arh68 6y ago

Too bad. Just yesterday I was looking at Yeager quotes [1], these stood out as possibly similar to software, take what you will There is no such thing as a natural born pilot. Whatever my aptitudes or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime’s learning experience. For the best pilots, flying is an obsession, the one thing in life they must do continually. The best pilots fly more than the others; that’s why they’re the best. Experience is everything. The eagerness to learn how and why every piece of equipment works is everything. And luck is everything, too. Everybody that I’ve ever seen that enjoyed their job was very good at it. [1] I'm still looking for the quote about engine design, "few moving parts", easily mantained..

williamdclt 6y ago
I like this quote! It's pretty applicable for all artisan-like activity, I think. It's well said and worth repeating over and over in different ways, but I wouldn't say it's a novel insight
aynyc 6y ago
Honestly, I think XXX is an obsession is an aptitude or talent in itself.
- Raidion 6y ago
  Yea, it's easy to understand if you want to do something well, you need to spend a ton of time focused on it. It's another to actually commit that time and show up day in and day out with a mindset that's fresh and always looking for ways to improve. I think the purity of purpose and sense of adventure is what attracts a lot of people to stories like Chuck's.
SEJeff 6y ago
Pretty sure that quote was in his Autobiography. I recall reading it when I read that book.

rmason 6y ago

Yeager wanted to be an astronaut but he lacked a college degree so NASA wouldn't let him. But they decided he was good enough to run the school that trained astronauts!

scarygliders 6y ago

RIP Chuck Yeager. You are a rare case of a verifiable legend. Legends never die.

xbar 6y ago

Godspeed, General.

SEJeff 6y ago

If you've never read it, his biography reads like an action movie starting Tom Cruise, but it is his real life story. Seriously, this is an amazing book: https://www.amazon.com/Yeager-Autobiography-Chuck/dp/0553256742 https://www.amazon.com/Yeager-Autobiography-Chuck/dp/0553256... He was a two time fighter ace in WWII and broke the speed of sound. He almost died in a crash once as well, but walked away with half of his face burned up. The guy was incredible.

utxaa 6y ago

amazing how such a racist asshole is celebrated. he's responsible for kicking the one black astronaut out from the mercury program. google it.

thehealthycoder 6y ago

Amazing guy, his challenges and the way he dealt with them, over his lifetime could teach a lot about handling stress and pressure.