In Search of Chuck Yeager’s Evading Germans 1944 (2013) | Hacker News Reader

In Search of Chuck Yeager’s Evading Germans 1944 (2013)

victoriayeager.com

38 pointsrfreytag15 comments

Chuck Yeager is surprisingly active on Twitter, answers lots of questions. His replies can be pretty funny, too. https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager

One of my favorite Yeager exchanges was when Irony Twitter tried to have some fun with him:

> @virgiltexas: Thoughts on the moon?

> Yeager: It's there.

https://twitter.com/genchuckyeager/status/773065112764624896

This reminds me a lot of my Granddad's stories about working with / hanging out with Chuck Yeager, Jimmy Doolittle, and the Apollo 11 guys. I really need to record all of his stories before they're lost..

Yeager and Armstrong were particularly quiet/private, so there's maybe less stories about them. But there's at least one instance of Neil Armstrong angrily pinning my Granddad up against a wall because he invited some people over for autographs.

> Yeager and Armstrong were particularly quiet/private, so there's maybe less stories about them. But there's at least one instance of Neil Armstrong angrily pinning him up against a wall because he invited some people over for autographs.

Two things to keep in mind: that's pretty much antithetical to everything anyone who knew him ever said about Armstrong's character or temperament, and Yeager was happy to spread falsehoods about Armstrong (and others).

Oh, I meant he (supposedly) pinned my grandfather, not Yeager. I'm more inclined to believe that the story is true, Armstrong was acting out of character, and that he simply disliked my granddad.

Personally, I've only met Collins, so I can only corroborate that he's a nice guy and collects tabloid articles about aliens.

Oh, gosh! That's an entirely different story.

Collins seems like a genuinely nice and generous man, I've seen him speak. I didn't know that about the tabloids.

What did Yeager say bad about Armstrong? In his autobiography, Yeager called Armstrong and amazing pilot and credited him with saving one of the missions (cannot remember which one) with piloting skills.

Well, the parent doesn't say that Yeager said bad things about Armstrong, just that Yeager was happy to spread falsehoods.

I could easily see that being Yeager telling somebody "Oh yeah, did you hear that Armstrong benched 450 yesterday? It's a new personal record for him, make sure you congratulate him!" or something similar. Making up harmless lies as a practical joke, that sort of thing.

I'm not familiar with what you're referring to, but it's been a while since I read Yeager's first autobiography. I do remember one bit clearly, though.

In the book he tells a story about reconnoitering a dry lake near Edwards in a twin-seat plane with Neil Armstrong. In his story, Armstrong wants to do a touch-and-go landing to test lake's suitability for landing, and Yeager tries to talk him out of it because of concerns about mud. They land and they get stuck. This is all part of a larger, kind of spiteful and jealous narrative of the NACA guys not being as skillful behind the stick as the Air Force pilots even though they may have been better engineers, etc. etc.

Armstrong's version of the story (recounted only briefly in First Man - incredible book btw) makes it sound more like Neil Armstrong was the victim of a practical joke wherein Yeager encouraged him to land even though he knew full well they'd get stuck. It's actually a funnier story, but it doesn't play in with the whole narrative of the NACA pilots being obtuse geeks and so on.

That's pretty much all Armstrong was quoted as saying about Yeager that I'm aware of. Yeager's not universally loved by his fellow test pilots, however. http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_16.html

Nobody is universally liked, and I can see trying the practical joke route since its a pretty big part of the culture (recently watched a Navy video having to do with dropping greased pigs on another ship). The tension between services (Navy and Army Air Force / Air Force) is well documented along with tension with the civilian pilots. There is a bit of family problem going on with Yeager and his kids which is generating some bad press.

Cannot find my copy of the book, but the mission Armstrong did the piloting was Gemini 8.

Ah, that's an interesting mission, and it's nice to know that Yeager supported his flying on that. There was some armchair quarterbacking of how Armstrong handled that, as you may know, by some of the lesser known astronauts.

It was pretty much the most dangerous situation an American astronaut ever encountered in orbit that required specialized piloting skills and very quick reactions to survive. A couple of other pilots thought he used too much fuel solving the problem, which resulted in him having to abort and reenter right away. The NASA leadership thought he did well enough that he was qualified to command an Apollo mission likely to land on the moon...

If I remember the passage correctly (It has been over a decade), he used it as an example of how important it was to have actual skilled, trained pilots in the space program (basically taking pilots mattered). It was in the chapters about the X-15, I think.

I would assume command of the first Moon landing would be taken as an endorsement of his solution and probably acknowledgement that on such a difficult mission he might need to solve a similar problem.

Of course, I have read interviews where he called Armstrong a better engineer than pilot, but I get the feeling that Air Force does not complement Navy unless making a point about the professions as a whole.

Every time Chuck Yeager's name comes up, I feel a little bit of amazement and happiness when I realize that the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, in 1947, is still alive nearly 70 years later.

Its amazing how quickly technology has advanced. This has given us a time period where we live at the same time as our legends. Its been amazing to sit through lectures and appearances by people who marked the milestones in so many areas. Computer Science and EE are particularly fortunate with a lot of Aerospace getting access to folks from the jet age.

Its ending though, and I do pity the next generation for not having the same experience.

The last time someone expressed this to me, I found out that he sells signed photos, and I bought one:

http://www.chuckyeager.com/right-stuff-store

Obviously I have no connection with this, but it cost me $250 to get a signed photo from the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, which I really appreciate, and that opportunity won't be around for ever.

And no, I will never sell it. :)

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