Test pilot Chuck Yeager dead at 97

Hard-charging aviation legend Chuck Yeager, who in 1947 became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in level flight, died on December 7. Yeager was 97.

Yeager's death was announced by his wife Victoria via Yeager's verified Twitter account:

No information on the cause of Yeager's death was released.

High flight

Though breaking the sound barrier in the post-war years became his most famous exploit, Yeager was already a decorated pilot by the end of World War II. As an Army Air Force pilot in October 1944, he earned "ace in a day" status by downing five enemy planes while escorting Allied bombers (a feat which also won him a Silver Star).

After the war, Yeager stayed in the Army Air Force (which would reorganize itself into a separate branch of service in 1947, becoming the United States Air Force) and trained as a test pilot. Prior to his flight in the rocket-powered Bell X1, Yeager broke two ribs horseback riding. He sought treatment from a civilian doctor in order to avoid being grounded and told no one except his wife and his coworker Jack Ridley. (This incident and its aftermath are dramatized in the 1983 aviation epic The Right Stuff.) Breaking the sound barrier won Yeager the Collier Trophy, a coveted award only given to people who make enormous contributions to advancing the state of the art of aeronautics.