RIP Chuck Yeager

[atfsgeoff]

We have lost a true legend among men.

Passed a couple hours ago at the ripe old age of 97. Godspeed, or as it were, Yeagerspeed, sir.

[LooseonExit]

Never ending year.

[Chariotoflove]

A good life well lived.

[Just Jeepin']

Well, shit. Godspeed.

[pos_camaro]

@atfsgeoff

[atfsgeoff]

@pos_camaro They better have one super badass flyover at his funeral. Would be the most apropos time ever to drag a sonic boom across a populated area too.

[Jcarr]

Some people you just expect to live forever. Yeager was one of those folks.

Survived a 100,000-foot flat spin, only to eject and have his helmet catch fire.

[pos_camaro]

@atfsgeoff A 21 Boom salute would be totally appropriate.

[ttyymmnn]

@looseonexit said in RIP Chuck Yeager:

Never ending year.

This guy has had one hell of a run and lived to a ripe old age. Can't blame this one on 2020.

[ttyymmnn]

@atfsgeoff

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

CAVU. Godspeed, General Yeager.

[ClassicDatsunDebate]

@atfsgeoff Godspeed Chuck

[LooseonExit]

@ttyymmnn said in RIP Chuck Yeager:

@looseonexit said in RIP Chuck Yeager:

Never ending year.

This guy has had one hell of a run and lived to a ripe old age. Can't blame this one on 2020.

Yeah, I didn’t really think it through and I should have been less hasty to post... Wasn't trying to be 2020meme-ish, just been a (seemingly never ending) number of good and interesting folks lost this year. In general it’s sad and a bit surreal to see people I grew up reading stories about or hearing about people my parents talk about/grew up with pass away.

RIP Chuck Yeager

[gettingoldercarguy]

@ttyymmnn I can and will blame this on 2020

[Shop-Teacher]

Oh man. I actually have a bit of a tear welling up

[ttyymmnn]

@looseonexit No worries. Nothing more than bad timing, IMO.

[jayvincent]

Blue skies, Chuck, you served your country well and now you can rest.

@atfsgeoff @ttyymmnn @Skyfire77 - when quarantine starts to make you crazy, let me recommend "Chasing the Demon
A Secret History of the Quest for the Sound Barrier, and the Band of American Aces Who Conquered It"
By Dan Hampton. Yeager only gets a couple of sections (the book really focuses on the precursors to supersonic flight rather than the denouement of achieving it), but it's an engrossing read for anyone who's a fan of aviation history.

[Mark Tucker]

Well, damn... Here's to one of the "very few old bold pilots." RIP, sir.

[phenotyp]

Well, shit.
A life well-lived, indeed. What a ride.

[phenotyp]

From a Twitter acct I don't know how to link properly right now:

Chuck Yeager was a West Virginian and @sydneemcelroy received a scholarship that was named after him. Every year the Yeager Scholars would have a banquet and Chuck Yeager would show up without fail.

Every year, he would show up in a windbreaker and then take stage and announce “Now we’re gonna watch a movie about me.” We would then, in fact, watch a short film about Chuck Yeager. Anyway, that’s my anecdote.

[Skyfire77]

Yeager made a cameo appearance in the movie The Right Stuff (1983). He played "Fred," a bartender at "Pancho's Place", which was most appropriate, as Yeager said, "if all the hours were ever totaled, I reckon I spent more time at her place than in a cockpit over those years." His own role in the movie was played by Sam Shepard.

RIP General Yeager.

[dieseldub]

@atfsgeoff certified bad ass and legend.

[pip bip]

@atfsgeoff may he rest in peace.

[RallyDarkstrike]

Oh man, 2020

Godspeed Chuck...

[StreetsofPerth]

A long and amazing life well lived.