In the Cockpit with Chuck Yeager

By Di Freeze

In the Cockpit with Chuck Yeager is the first volume in Passion for Flight, a series of short biographies (20,000 words or less) regarding notable pilots who inspire young and old alike to take to the skies.

Brig. Gen. Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier, on Oct. 14, 1947. After being shot down during World War II and evading capture, he successfully fought a rule that banned shot-down pilots from re-entering combat and eventually became a double ace. In 65 years in military cockpits, he flew at least 340 different makes and models of military airplanes, including the Air Force’s entire inventory during World War II, as well as aircraft from Germany, France, England, Japan, Sweden and Russia.

In 1994, Yeager replaced actor Cliff Robertson as the chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program. Under his leadership, the organization accomplished the successful mission of getting one million youth to fly at the controls by Dec. 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight. Yeager himself has personally flown more than 500 Young Eagles, and the foundation has given more than $50,000 for the Young Eagles General Chuck Yeager Scholarship Endowment Program. After accomplishing his mission, Yeager turned over the reins to Harrison Ford, in 2004.

Gen. Yeager and his wife Victoria incorporated the General Chuck Yeager Foundation in 2002. The foundation supports programs that teach “honor, integrity, courage and excellence in our daily conduct, a strong sense of public service and duty to our country, and an intellectual curiosity.”

Di Freeze interviewed Chuck Yeager for this short biography, and filled in facts with his autobiography, Yeager. Gen. Yeager reviewed and approved this approximately 11,000-word bio for accuracy. It contains vintage and present day photos. This is not meant to be a comprehensive history of Chuck Yeager's life, but it contains the major milestones in his aviation history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Di Freeze
• Release date: Apr 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301817412

Di Freeze

Di Freeze is the founder of Freeze Time Media, which offers writing, editing, formatting and publishing services for print and ebooks. Over the past few years she has edited and published books in the categories of self-help, children's, fiction (including historical), short stories, and commentaries.Her aviation features are the basis for a series, Passion For Flight (In the Cockpit with...), geared towards inspiring young adults to fly. The first ten biographies are available as ebooks on Amazon and B&N. Volumes one through three — featuring Chuck Yeager, Bob Hoover and Cliff Robertson — are available on Amazon. Volumes four and five, featuring Barron Hilton and Clay Lacy, will be available in the near future.Di co-wrote "From the Ground Up: From the Tractor to the Sabre," with Talmage E. Miller, a Colorado aviation sales pioneer.In 2009 she wrote briefly for A Time To Love, an online relationship magazine. Her interviews included astronaut Charlie Duke, the Love Boat's Gavin MacCleod, and professional BMX racer Donny Robinson.From 2000 to 2008, she was editor-in-chief for Airport Journals. She interviewed well-known aviators regularly for feature biographies for our print and online publications. Those interviews included Chuck Yeager, Bob Hoover, Tex Hill, Barron Hilton, Clay Lacy, Burt and Dick Rutan, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, John Travolta, Patty Wagstaff, Sean Tucker, Gene Cernan, Bill Anders, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, Steve Fossett, AL Ueltschi and many others.

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In the Cockpit with Chuck Yeager

Di Freeze

In the Cockpit with Chuck Yeager

Published by Di Freeze at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2013 Di Freeze

All rights reserved.

Freeze Time Media

In the Cockpit with Chuck Yeager and other books in the Passion for Flight series are dedicated to the many pilots such as Brig. Gen. Charles Chuck Yeager who have allowed me and others to glimpse the beauty of flight through their eyes. This series is also dedicated to those pilots I had the pleasure of interviewing who have flown west, including Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, Brig. Gen. David Lee Tex Hill, and Steve Fossett. My hope is that these stories will inspire future pilots, young and old alike, to experience that beauty and passion for flight.

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VOL 2 PREVIEW

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Acknowledgement

About the Author

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EAGER TO ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE

GCYI Photo

Chuck Yeager grew up in the Appalachian foothills of West Virginia.

While growing up in the Appalachian foothills of West Virginia, Chuck Yeager never dreamed of flying. I run into guys that say, ‘I hung on a fence and looked at airplanes; I really wanted to be a pilot.’ But airplanes meant nothing to me. Even after I got into the military, at age 18, I was just a mechanic. I wasn’t interested in flying. It wasn’t my world.

But flying definitely became his world. In 65 years in military cockpits, Yeager flew at least 340 different makes and models of military airplanes, including the Air Force’s entire inventory during World War II, as well as aircraft from Germany, France, England, Japan, Sweden and Russia.

Charles Elwood Chuck Yeager was born on February 13, 1923, to Albert Hal and Susie Mae Yeager. He spent his early years in Myra, West Virginia, a small town a few miles up the Mud River from Hamlin, and in Hubble, where his father worked for the railroad. His later jobs included drilling gas wells. All the surveys that everyone used for geology all over the state were my father’s. He had an eighth grade education but a PhD in self education.

When Yeager was in preschool, they moved to Hamlin, which had a population of 400. Later in life, Yeager would be glad he inherited his father’s mechanical aptitude. He grew up around truck engines and drilling equipment, and it was easy for him to take apart a car motor and put it back together.

At Hamlin High School, he excelled at anything requiring dexterity or mathematical aptitude. Money was hard to come by, so after graduating in 1941, he never considered going to college. I wasn’t much of a scholar, but I was always eager to acquire practical knowledge about things that interested me, he said in his autobiography, Yeager, a multimillion copy bestseller.

In the summer of 1941, an Army Air Corps recruiter came to town, and Yeager enlisted for a two-year hitch. I thought I might enjoy it and see some of the world.

The Army Air Corps trained him as a mechanic. Stationed at Moffett Field, California, he was crew chief on T-6s when a bulletin board notice regarding the Flying Sergeant program caught