Happy Birthday, Sir!
Posted on 02/14/2019 10:05:18 AM PST by Kid Shelleen
General Chuck Yeager—an idol of anyone who has ever sought to break a speed record, whether in the air, on land, or on the water— turns 96 today. He proved that speed that were thought to be impossible for humans were actually attainable.
That all started in October, 1947 with the flight of the Bell X-1, an experimental aircraft that was built for one reason: to break the sound barrier. The diminutive plane, nicknamed Glamorous Glennis, wasn't like other aircraft. It carried more than 5000 pounds of fuel, and that fuel wasn't just pump gas. The rocket engine needed liquid oxygen and water alcohol to run. If something went wrong during fueling, the fuel could explode with the equivalent force of 5000 pounds of TNT.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Yeager was first to break Mach in Level flight
Some say that F 86 in steep dive could exceed Mach 1
Yeager did it with several broken ribs after fall from horse …...
According to The Right Stuff, there were a lot of test pilots who had zero interest in NASA because they wanted to fly, not just be "spam in a can." Perhaps that was sour grapes, I don't know.
Neil Armstrong was chosen to be spacecraft commander for Apollo 11 in part because he demonstrated a remarkable talent for understanding man-in-the-loop servo systems; this understanding was both theoretical and practical. His master's thesis at USC was on closed-loop and man-in-the-loop systems, and he showed an almost incredible hands-on skill level when he de-spun the Gemini 8 capsule after its digital attitude control system pushed it up to nearly one revolution per second due to faulty software.
Neil Armstrong disabled the automatic system, took control by hand of the thrusters, brought the capsule to a stable configuration, and saved enough maneuvering fuel to effect a safe landing.
It's as though he had perfect pitch for servo control systems. That's why they put him at the controls of the LM for the first landing on the moon.
I don't think Chuck Yeager ever had much interest in that sort of thing. He just loved to fly airplanes, and was incredibly good at it, even though he didn't have a college education.
Pretty cool!
he showed an almost incredible hands-on skill level when he de-spun the Gemini 8 capsule after its digital attitude control system pushed it up to nearly one revolution per second due to faulty software.
I remember reading about that, the sun was flashing past
the cockpit window sixty times a minute.
Talk about disorienting!
During WWII he shot down 11 German aircraft including a Me-262 jet fighter.
Happy Birthday General! Keep Flying High and Fast!
Chuck brought a totally out of control X-1 back under control saving the plane and himself.
Yes, he kept his head, was real cool, took care of one axis at a time (the capsule was flopping in multiple axes), and brought the situation under control.
He had the physical instincts of a professional high-wire artist, along with the mathematical skills to understand what was going on at a theoretical level and formulate a plan to solve the problem, all while whipping around like a whirling dervish.
He was also distinguished himself as an excellent pilot of the LLRV “flying bedstead,” which made extensive use of closed-loop servo controls for stability and guidance; his reports on its behavior in flight were instrumental in designing the software for the LM.
His reputation wasn’t damaged when one of the LLRV’s crashed while he was at the controls. The reason was that the thruster system ran out of fuel when the thing was several hundred feet up, which caused it to immediately become unstable. Armstrong was forced to eject from the LLRV, which fortunately didn’t fall on top of him as it hit the ground. The problem was found to be a faulty sensor that gave him an incorrect indication of his fuel state.
Yeah, and that was in the final few weeks of the war!
I'm glad you wrote that last observation. General Yeager also reportedly had an abrasive personality. As do many in aviation (including this writer).
Neil Armstrong, along with Bob Hoover, is regarded as one of the very best "engineering test pilots." He may have been the best pilot with the best education, ever. That's not just my opinion.
Yeah, they knew the astronauts would all be public figures by default, and they didn't want someone who might haul off and tell Charles Collingwood or Frank Reynolds to f off on live TV.
I was going to comment on the same. I don't know if that was ever proven. But after Chuck made it official, and the implications and symptoms were revealed, it is said that some pilots of the F-86 made that claim. It seems plausible but is worth noting. The F-86 was not designed for that speed and I do not recall the claims ever being affirmed by engineers. I'd be curious to know, however.
Happy Birthday, Sir!
I recall the movie “The Right Stuff” being regarded as pretty accurate at the time. I don’t know for sure, but it did depict the test pilots and astronauts as pretty arrogant (highly confident) egocentric throttle jockeys.
I know a couple of fighter pilots today and believe that... not much has changed. I expect it takes a certain level of crazy mixed with some coordination, intellect and confidence to be good at it.
Awesome. They don’t make them like that any more. Thanks for sharing!
The need for full-motion control surfaces was discovered around the time — or soon after — the crash of the de Havilland DH 108 "Swallow" that killed Geoffrey de Havilland in England.
The need for full-motion control surfaces was classified top secret, and was one reason films like this one were not released to the public for many years after the event.
If the F-86 was taken supersonic, it would have been very risky to the pilot. I'm not saying it didn't happen; actually, the sound barrier had been closely approached if not broken by pilots of the P-38 Lightning, when in steep dives, during and immediately after WWII.
I was able to see Neil Armstrong speak at Oshkosh for the 25th Anniversary of the moon landings when I was there in 1994, and they had the following astronauts there:
It was bloody awesome! They had it in the outdoor pavilion, on a warm summer night, and they just had no format and went round-table and told stories! (The ones about Frank Borman's "gas problem" in Gemini really hit my funny bone!)
But the part of that really made it wonderful was, as we listened in the growing darkness in that open-sided pavilion near the runway right after the sun went down, a huge roar rose up...as we all in unison turned to look, a Concorde took off in full afterburner, sharp cones of blue flame exiting the back of each engine!
En masse, the entire audience turned and looked back to the runway right in the middle of one of the astronauts on stage who was spinning a yarn.
I can't remember which astronaut it was, but I recall him saying "Go ahead! Turn around and look! All of us up here on the stage are looking too!"
These men, who had all flown in space, and had a gazillion hours flying all kinds of aircraft including the hottest kind, were at heart, just like us...aviation enthusiasts whose hearts still, even after all they had seen and done, beat just a little quicker at the sight of four meaty flame-thrusting, ear-splitting jet engines!
If you have ever seen the movie "Master and Commander" there is the following dialogue spoken by Russell Crowe (Captain Jack Aubrey) as he recounts the two times in his life he had spoken to Admiral Nelson:
I felt that I had something very fundamental in common with those great men up on that stage, and sure, it was a degree of hero worship, but...I am not ashamed of it...:)
My buddy and I had the opportunity to try to converse with Gen. Yeager as we stood waiting for something, but...it was obvious he wasn't interested in chatting. A couple of brief attempts where he looked away with just a grunt, and we understood and left it at that. I thought at the time he was cold and rude, but over the years, I have come to understand that in his life as a celebrity (not something he deliberately sought out or liked) he simply didnt want to talk to people. He wasn't being a deliberate jerk. I accept he just wanted his privacy.
Now, speaking to Bob Hoover...that was a man who enjoyed shooting the breeze! We spent about 15 min with him, and was he ever an affable gentleman!
Great story, thanks for putting it up.
I’ve known one or two highly accomplished men; deep down, under the layers of armor they’ve built up to be able to deal with responsibility and pressure, they’re still motivated by the things that excited them as children.
I’ve no doubt this is true of the great pilots and astronauts you listed.
5 in one shot too. He had 16/16 vision so he was shooting at the krauts before they knew what was going on.
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