American pilot Chuck Yeager, aviation legend, has died

It is a page in aviation history that has just been turned. Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to cross the sound barrier, died Monday at the age of 97, his wife Victoria announced on Monday. “It is with great sadness that I announce that the love of my life, General Chuck Yeager passed away just before 9pm ET” (2am GMT Tuesday), Victoria Yeager wrote on her husband’s Twitter account. “An incredible life, well lived, America’s greatest pilot and his legacy of strength, adventure and patriotism will be remembered forever. Ms. Yeager did not specify the causes of her husband’s death.

A WWII pilot, Yeager made history by breaking the sound barrier in 1947 aboard a Bell X-1 aircraft. “It opened up space, Star Wars, the satellites,” Yeager said in 2007 in an interview with Agence France-Presse. His exploits as a test pilot were immortalized in a Hollywood film titled The Right Stuff.

Born February 13, 1923 in the small town of Myra, West Virginia, Yeager grew up with his mechanic father who taught him the trade. He joined the Air Force in September 1941, three months before the United States entered the war. He began as an aircraft mechanic before learning to fly. Yeager set many records, but spent most of his career in the United States Air Force in the 1950s and 1960s. He retired in 1975.