Chuck Yeager, american hero... drove a hot rod!

The first pilot ever to fly faster than the speed of sound, but that is only one of the remarkable feats this pilot performed in service to his country.

Shot down over enemy territory only one day after his first kill in 1943, Yeager evaded capture, and with the aid of the French resistance, made his way across the Pyrenees to neutral Spain. In all, he flew 64 combat missions in World War II.

On one occasion he shot down a German jet from a prop plane. By war's end he had downed 13 enemy aircraft, five in a single day.

Yeager commanded the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilots School to train pilots for the space program. In this capacity, Yeager supervised development of the space simulator and the introduction of advanced computers to Air Force pilots. Although Yeager himself was passed over for service in space, nearly half of the astronauts who served in the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo programs were graduates of Yeager's school.

In 1968, Yeager was promoted to brigadier general. He is one of a very few who have risen from enlisted man to general in the Air Force
Biography info editted from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/yea0bio-1

via: http://speedseekers.blogspot.com/ where there is always something cool and unusual going on

Chuck Yeager, American test pilot, American hero

Via: www.rolling-jet-thunder.tumblr.com

Uncle Bob the Corsair pilot, heroes don't always die in battle

HAMB member MAZOOMA wrote about his Uncle Bob, I have to repost it.

Uncle Bob with his Corsair.

He was killed one month after I was born when an airman in another Corsair, who my uncle was training over Riverside, clipped my uncle's wing. The other pilot bailed out and parachuted to safety.

Uncle Bob stayed with his plane because it was headed into a school playground. He managed to guide what was left of his plane into a dirt lot killing him instantly. I still have the letters from eye-witnesses that were mailed to my grandparents saying how they could see him struggling to get the plane away from the crowded playground. Many people from the neighborhood where the crash took place made the drive to Monrovia where his funeral was held. All came to pay their respects for a man they would never meet.

Via: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=446547&page=14