On October 14, Brigadier General Charles “Chuck” Yeager completed a celebratory flight to mark the anniversary of his historic first supersonic flight. In pure Air Force fashion, Yeager, now 89, broke the sound barrier 45,000 feet over the Edwards Air Force Base at 10:24 a.m., 65 years to the minute after his original flight.
But this time Yeager didn’t have to strap himself into Glamorous Glennis, the Bell X-1 in which he went supersonic the first time. Instead, he climbed into an F-15D at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas with 65th Aggressor Squadron pilot Captain David Vincent.
“It was a smooth flight today,” Yeager said after the flight. “The F-15 is my favorite airplane, and that’s why I came here to fly it.”
