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DefenceTalk<\/p>\nDefenceTalk<\/p>\n
US aviation legend Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, has died, his wife announced Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is w\/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET,\u201d Victoria Yeager tweeted on her husband\u2019s account.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn incredible life well lived, America\u2019s greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
She did not specify the cause of her husband\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
A World War II fighter pilot, Yeager, 97, rocketed into history by breaking the sound barrier in the experimental Bell X-1 research aircraft in 1947, helping to pave the way for the US space program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt opened up space, Star Wars, satellites,\u201d Yeager said in a 2007 interview with AFP.<\/p>\n
His test pilot exploits were later immortalized in the 1983 Hollywood blockbuster \u201cThe Right Stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born on February 13, 1923 in the tiny town of Myra, West Virginia, Yeager grew up fixing pickup trucks alongside his father.<\/p>\n
He joined the Army Air Corps in September 1941, three months before the US entered World War II, and started out as an aircraft mechanic before undergoing flight training.<\/p>\n
Yeager would go on to set numerous other flight records, but most of his career was spent as a military commander directing US fighter squadrons throughout the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n
He retired from the US Air Force in 1975.<\/p>\n