Yeager - debunking the myth.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Fascinating reading.

http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_11.html

Yeager has been very quick to criticise Crossfield, Walker, Armstrong and many other much greater and smarter test pilots over the years, yet totally screwed up his attempt at a record in the NF-104 (- and avoided getting any blame for it as well.

[Nillus]

Notwhstanding the great thing(s) he did, the 2 blokes I know that met Yeager had very little nice to say about him.
'Full of himself' was one of the kinder comments.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Yeager's massive ego just comes out again and again in comments he's made about other test pilots. I think he has always had a massive chip on his shoulder about not doing a full degree. Another good book to read on this period is "Contrails over the Mojave" by George Marrett, on of my fav aviation writers.

[Tony P]

Well if you survived WW2 and became an Ace, he can be as full of himself as he wants. I don't think the other test pilots had any war time fun apart from Neil who flew in Korea bombing ground targets.

I met him in the 80s (as well as Buzz,) and he was nice to me. I also wrote to him when the 50th anniversary of the speed of sound flight was approaching and he sent a lovely letter back with some signed memorabilia.

I've also heard he can be a bit cantankerous. These days his wife is running affairs which has taken the shine off things. Just see how much it is to get something signed!

That article sounds like sour grapes Adam. Who wrote it?

[Adam the Akrodude]

Written by the primary pilot assigned to the NF-104A - Lt. Col. Robert W. Smith USAF (ret.). Did you read the entire article? I guess it could be classed as sour grapes - I think justifiably though. I'm assuming you have read Yeager's book yes? It's my opinion that Tom Wolfe helped built up Yeager as this larger than life test pilot with the "Right Stuff" largely at the expense of many other more talented and smarter test pilots. Yeager benefited greatly from the book and movie "The Right Stuff". He shat all over Armstrong, Crossfield and Walker in particular - even though those test pilots were far more experienced and qualified - flew much higher and faster. His arrogance and ego is legendary! Scott Crossfield once referred to Yeager as a great novelist!
Without doubt Yeager did some amazing things. Becoming an ace at the very end of WW2 I don't think means all that much relative to other "aces" from that period - in my opinion anyway. By that stage, most of the Luftwaffe's "Experten" were either dead, recovering from wounds, moved out of combat roles or had transitioned onto the 262 (itself very vulnerable on take off and landing). The average time a Luftwaffe student pilot received in training was not much over 100 hours prior to moving to a front line squadron. The Allied equivalent was over 400 hours. The Jagdwaffe had been bled dry by 1945. Yeager's score of what was it 5-6 "kills" is pretty paltry when compared to the great fighter pilots from that period.
I can't and won't take anything away from Yeager's amazing achievements in the very early days of test flying at Muroc/Edwards. He officially is the first to have broken the speed of sound in level flight. George "Wheeties" Welsh could very well have beaten Yeager booming the desert in dives in his prototype Sabre prior to the X-1 supersonic flight, but that's a whole other story isn't it. The sad thing for me in regard to Yeager is all the vitriol he has spouted towards other great test pilots from that time, thus tarnishing all the amazing stuff he achieved as one of the early rocket test pilots - just how I feel about this.
I do believe things went nuts in regard to copyright with Yeager after he remarried. "Glamorous Glennis" disappeared off decal sheets on X-1 models - insane huh.

It's well known that Yeager screwed up massively in that NF-104A crash and pulled every string he could to ensure his career wasn't tarnished - at the expense of others like Robert Smith. The truth is out there man!

BTW, Joe Walker flew P-38's during WW2.
Crossfield was a Naval Aviator - fighter pilot, was instructing first and just missed out getting into the fight against Japan. Was training with his air group for the invasion against Japan when the war ended.
Bill Bridgeman was also a Naval Aviator flying Catalina's and Privateer's during WW2 before becoming a test pilot.
As you mentioned Armstrong was also a Naval Aviator flying in combat in Korea.

Check out Bob White's incredible career as a military combat and test pilot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Michael_White

I would think all the great test pilots from that period had started with military training - no other way to become a test pilot.

I guess I'm more interested in those engineer-test pilots who just got on with the job without thumping their chests and ended up achieving much greater things.

Great books on this period include Scott Crossfield's book "Always another Dawn" - fascinating. George Marret's book "Contrails over the Mohave" is also anther great insight into test flying in the 60's. Neil Armstrong's biography is amazing as well.

[Tony P]

I guess Crossfield didn't weigh up the risks in his Cessna?

[Adam the Akrodude]

I guess Crossfield didn't weigh up the risks in his Cessna?

I think he did, but he decided to press on. I was reading his book at the time of this crash which was pretty spooky. There on page 118 of his book and I quote " Not once since then, either on land or in the air, have I ever turned back from any course that I have set upon, no matter how dark the clouds that lay ahead". The hairs on the back of my neck sprung straight out on reading that, only a day or two after Crossfield died. Weather God 1, Crossfield 0.

This comment was in relation to a Navy Reserve formation of Corsairs he was in flying from Seattle down to Denver. They got lost and confused due to storms on the way. Had they pressed on with the original heading and not second guessed themselves, they would have made it to Denver without having to divert and suffer the embarrassment. It's a fascinating insight into his thinking in this regard. Being the complete chicken I am, I think the flight did the right thing. They were lost, they back tracked and all landed safely in a field as it turned out only 23 miles from Denver, although hugely embarrassed - just on the other side of a bank of storm clouds. It's easy to say "If only we'd done such and such...." 20:20 hindsight is crystal clear. Perhaps having a huge amount of experience he had can sometimes effect one's judgement - the whole, been there, done that, got the t-shirt thing. This man had survived a X-15 blowing up on the ground - the only thing left was basically the cockpit. So what does some storms along the flight path mean to someone like that?

In relation to that fateful last flight of his. Officially he failed to get all the info on route weather as I understand it. My gut feeling is that maybe he wanted one more challenge - maybe to shake his fist skyway toward his "God" perhaps. Maybe he went out the way he wanted to - who knows. Yeager of course piped up straight away after this before any official investigation was even started, degrading further his credibility. Talk about pot calling the kettle black! As Crossfield once said, Yeager is a great "Novelist". Yeager did get the last snipe at his old rival - bit sad really.

[Tony P]

Mate I'd have given the game away before my 84th birthday, especially flying solo, that's for sure.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Mate I'd have given the game away before my 84th birthday, especially flying solo, that's for sure.

In my case, absolutely - totally agree. Flying was Crossfield's life and tragically the cause of his death. In his position, I totally understand his desire to keep flying. If he passed all the medicals, annual tests (not sure what licence Crossfield still possessed, thus dictating flight review and medical test frequency), well he was legally allowed to fly. Choosing then to fly at night in marginal conditions in a aeroplane that has to fly through the thick of it, well that is another decision again - killed many pilots over the years both young and old. Murphy's Law - he probably got away with it hundreds of times until it finally got him. Still think it was totally crass how Yeager to say what he did a day after the crash.
Crossfield probably didn't know just how bad the weather was prior to take off. Hmm, how often does that happen? All the time. My instructor died flying a twin into the ground at King Island at night in fog. He was such a great instructor - shit happens sometimes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/21/AR2007072101294.html

[Tony P]

Still think it was totally crass how Yeager to say what he did a day after the crash.

He was right though.