Chuck Yeager (1923–2020)

General Chuck Yeager has always been a restless adventurer, from flying daredevil combat missions over Nazi Germany and shattering records as a test pilot to his annual trip into California's rugged sierras. Press On brings you around the world with Yeager: from a close brush with death in a remote corner of New Zealand to backpacking at 14,000 feet in the high sierras and flycasting in Scotland to deer hunting in Texas and catching a 267-pound Alaskan halibut--on a forty-pound test line And you'll travel back with him to his roots among the rough-hewn, honest mountain folk of West Virginia and the remarkable people and experiences that influenced him.

Here is life as only Chuck Yeager can live it, with anecdotes and insights from his best friends, flying buddies, family, and his wife of more than forty years. Here is the real Chuck Yeager, a man who still lives life on the edge, facing new challenges and risks with an indefatigable spirit of adventure that can be summed up in one simple phrase: Press on… (lisätietoja)

I've had this book for 14 years and it was only when I heard an old interview of Chuck Yeager that I was inspired to read his autobiography. And worth it. The first few chapters, relating his youth, are mildly entertaining in being filled with all the childish and adolescent pranks that he could remember. But when he learns to fly, that's when the story gets interesting: dog-fighting, the sound barrier, the age of jets, then the age of rockets; WW 2, Korean War, Pakistan vs. India, Russian MiGs. His life is filled with danger...and luck. One real trick of the authors was to interspersed book with the recollections of his wife, friends, comrades, superiors--along with some biographies of his close friends, adding texture to his life by showing who he loved and was loved by, and how they intermingled. The autobiography, is not "gripping" as such...but it does have some very gripping moments--and some nice insights into Russian aviation vs USA. It's an easy and entertaining read.… (lisätietoja)

In a compendium of reminiscences, photographs, and experts' discussions, the surviving participants in the development and flying of the Bell X-1 rocket plane that broke the sound barrier in 1947 recount their experiences. It also includes a chapter on famous aviatrix and motion picture stunt pilot Pancho Barnes and her Happy Bottom Riding Club. Pancho offered a free steak to the first man to break the sound barrier (Mach One) and Yeager collected that steak on Oct. 14th 1947. Pancho's Club was the fraternity house for the test pilots, where they could share lessons learned in flying the new jets and to celebrate surviving for one more day.… (lisätietoja)