Flying High with Chuck Yeager

Capt. Charles "Chuck" Yeager in 1947, the year he became "the fastest man on Earth," in his plane, the <em>Glamorous Glennis</em>.

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/ Keystone/Getty Images

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<em>Washington Post</em> aviation reporter Del Wilber (left) got a chance to fly with Yeager in California.

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Richard Wisdom for NPR /

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Yeager took Wilber on a tour of the Sierras in California. Yeager continues to fly at 84 years old, even though he says he won't miss flying if he gives it up.

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Richard Wisdom for NPR /

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Imagine batting practice with Hank Aaron, a cooking class with Julia Child — or an airplane flight with Chuck Yeager.

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Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound on Oct. 14, 1947. Sixty years later, he's still flying — and he hasn't softened with age.

Washington Post aviation reporter Del Wilber, also a pilot, got to meet up with Yeager on a small airstrip in northern California for a flight.

The 84-year-old Yeager wore jeans pulled up to his belly button and an Air Force baseball cap. He wasn't interested in talking about being a World War II fighter ace or flying rocket planes and breaking the sound barrier.

When asked if he still likes flying, he responded, "I never did like flying. How does that grab you? We'll concentrate on flying. So let's quit asking questions."

In a nearby hangar, where Yeager's friend stores his plane, Yeager pulled the dipstick out of the single-engine Husky to check the oil. "Doesn't run very good without it," he said.

Yeager is the guy from The Right Stuff. He has flown some of the fastest and most famous planes ever made. But he is not the least bit sentimental.

After wheeling the plane out, Yeager slipped easily into the cockpit, while Wilber bashed his head on the wing.

"These things will cut you to pieces," Yeager said.

On a tour of the rugged mountains of the Sierras, Yeager "puttered" along at 100 mph. Not fast for a man who "flew the SR-71 a lot — 3.26 Mach, 2,300 mph."

He said it casually, but 2,300 mph is faster than most bullets travel. It is New York to Los Angeles in less than an hour.

The last person who flew with Yeager paid more than $90,000 to a charity auction for the honor, but he agreed to fly with Wilber for the cost of fuel. He didn't explain why.

When asked about breaking the sound barrier, he said, "It opened up space for us and put us ahead of the rest of the world in aeronautical knowledge."

When the plane touched down, there was barely a bump. "If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing," Yeager said. "If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing."

When Wilber tried to get Yeager to talk about flying, he ended up talking about religion — and how he doesn't need it in the cockpit.

"It's really difficult for fanatic churchgoers to understand God can't help me. I'm the only one who can help me," he said. "Are you going to give up and go make a smoking hole or are you going to save yourself? If you [want to] make a smoking hole, you pray all the way down."

He said he didn't accept the X-1 sound barrier flights for the glory. "When I was picked to fly the X-1, it was my duty to fly it and I did," he said.

Yeager says he won't miss flying if he gives it up. "I can walk away from airplanes today and it doesn't make any difference to me. I got other things to do, like fishing and hunting."

When asked why he still flies, he responded, "To get some place to hunt and fish."

But when Yeager drove away in his family SUV, the vanity license plates read "Bell X-1A." The Bell X-1 is the plane that broke the sound barrier.

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