My father was a pilot and used to say “there's old pilots, there's bold pilots, but there's no old bold pilots”. Chuck Yeager proved that wrong. Chuck served in WW2 flying P-39s and in the ETO P-51 Mustangs. He accumulated 12&1/2 kills and was shot down in France and avoided capture heading south and crossing the Pyrenees mountains fighting it out with German patrols. Eventually returning to England he was slated to return to the US due to the policy of never sending back pilots who knew of resistance fighters and their organization. Chuck went all the way to the top and got Dwight Eisenhower to ok his return to flight duty. Chuck had 20/10 vision and could see attacking German fighters before anyone else.
He ended the war and returned to the US and became a test pilot during the most dangerous era of flight . He tested the new JET fighters and survived. Richard Bong was killed test flying jets ……… Chuck was the first to break the sound barrier in level flight in the Bell X-1 In 1947 . The X-1 had poor aerodynamics for these speeds and several men died trying to break the record.
Chuck went on for many years test flying dangerous new planes and retired a Brigadier General having no college education. ………. So we covered the bold pilot part. Chuck Yeager is 97 years old alive and well in 2020.
Source: Maryellen Reilly (Quora)
