DEATH OF CHUCK YEAGER

THE LEGEND OF AVIATION

"I announce with great sadness that the love of my life, General Chuck Yeager, passed away just before 9pm ET" (2 a.m. GMT Tuesday), wrote Victoria Yeager on her husband's Twitter account.

“An incredible life, well lived, of America's greatest pilot and his legacy of strength, adventure and patriotism will forever be remembered. Ms. Yeager did not specify the causes of her husband's death.

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 started out 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.

A pilot during World War II, Yeager made history by breaking the sound barrier in 1947 aboard a Bell X-1 aircraft. “It opened up space, Star Wars, satellites,” Yeager said in a 2007 interview.

His exploits as a test pilot were immortalized in a Hollywood movie called The Right Stuff.