U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first person to
fly faster than the speed of sound.
Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter
during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe.
He shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over
France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground.
After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly
the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft
Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.
Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager (1923 – 2020)
