MIKE GRACIA

1948

1947

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Sir James Paul McCartney is 79 today

Charles Lindbergh takes off in the Spirit of St. Louis.

At 7:52 a.m., aviator Charles A. Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt
Field on Long Island, New York, on the world’s first solo, nonstop
flight across the Atlantic Ocean and the first ever nonstop flight
between New York to Paris.

Howard Robard Hughes Jr.
(December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976)

Howard Hughes was a business magnate and famed aviation
pioneer. He was one of the richest men to emerge from the
American West during the 20th century.

The largest wooden airplane ever constructed, and flown
only one time by Howard Hughes, the Spruce Goose.

Charles “Chuck” Yeager with the Bell X-1.

Charles Elwood Yeager (February 13, 1923 – December 7, 2020)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — West Virginia native,
United States Air Force officer and record-setting test pilot,
Charles “Chuck” Yeager has died.

Yeager’s wife, Victoria, announced via Twitter that Yeager
passed away just before 9:00 p.m. Monday night.

The Lincoln County native, considered one of the greatest
pilots of all-time, was the first man to break the sound barrier
when he exceeded Mach 1 as he flew the experimental Bell
X-1 rocket plane over Edwards Air Force Base in California
in 1947.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (below).

Yeager also appeared in the 1983 film “The Right Stuff” and
Charleston’s Yeager Airport is named in his honor.