Today is Chuck Yeager’s 95th birthday
February 13, 1923. Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break what used to be known as the sound barrier, was born in Myra, West Virginia, on this date in 1923. He is 95 today.
We don’t hear much about the sound barrier anymore, because today we know it isn’t a barrier. It’s a term that describes the sudden and dramatic increase in aerodynamic drag and other effects experienced by an aircraft and its pilot approaching the speed of sound. In dry air at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius), the speed of sound is 741 miles per hour (1,192 km/hr).
Chuck Yeager became the first to break the sound barrier – in a Bell XS-1 aircraft he’d nicknamed Glamorous Glennis in tribute to his wife – on the morning of October 14, 1947. The plane is still on display today at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Today, most of us know Yeager from the classic 1983 movie The Right Stuff. Yeager later said that the late actor Sam Shepard, who played Yeager in the movie, was right-on.
At age 95, Yeager is still very active on Twitter and has over 85,000 followers. You’ll find him on Twitter as @GenChuckYeager.
