[Kid Shelleen]

A great tribute to American exceptionalism, from the bravery and patriotism of Chuck Yeager to a dazzling array American technology.
BTW - Yeager was not selected by NASA because he did not have a college degree.

[njslim]

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 …...

[Steely Tom]

Yeager was not selected by NASA because he did not have a college degree.

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.

[raybbr]

Pretty cool!

[fella]

During WWII he shot down 11 German aircraft including a Me-262 jet fighter.

[Shady]

Happy Birthday General! Keep Flying High and Fast!

[Fiddlstix]

Happy Birthday, Sir!

[Fast Moving Angel]

Awesome. They don’t make them like that any more. Thanks for sharing!

[Interesting Times]

Ping.

[Daffynition]

FYI

[YogicCowboy]

My favorite Right Stuff scene was the altitude record attempt with the JATO F-104A, since my father was a junior engineer on the design team, and was present at the first flight: 28 February test hop, I think, not 04 March maiden flight.

One of the few stories I ever got out of him (from a lifetime of Top Secret work with Lockheed and NASA):

He and his fellow engineer were watching the XF-104 run up its J65; a couple of USAF pilots came alongside, stared at it, turned to my father and one said, “Where’s the rest of the wing?”

My father said, “I’m sorry, that’s all there is.” It then took off.