YEAGER TO START EDWARDS OPEN HOUSE WITH A SONIC BANG.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - At the 1997 Edwards open house, Chuck Yeager  This page is currently protected from editing until disputes have been resolved. broke the sound barrier for what he thought would be the last time, capping ceremonies saluting the 50th anniversary of his historic X-1 flight. After a two-year absence, Yeager will be back to open the Edwards open house on Saturday with a sonic boom. Yeager's brief retirement from high-performance jet flying was ended by a request from Edwards' commander, Brig. Gen. Dick Reynolds ``Reynolds asked me to fly to give the sonic booms more historic significance,'' Yeager, 77, said Wednesday after climbing from an F-15 Eagle fighter jet after a practice flight. ``It was quite an honor to have General Reynolds ask me to fly.'' The sonic boom at the start of the open house is symbolic of Yeager's X-1 flight in October 1947 when the sound barrier was broken for the first time. This Saturday's sonic boom, made with an F-15, will signal the start of the flying portion of the open house program. This year not only is Yeager back, but he is bringing a partner - Joe Engle, a former X-15 rocket pilot and space shuttle space shuttle, reusable U.S. space vehicle. Developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it consists of a winged orbiter, two solid-rocket boosters, and an external tank. astronaut. Both men will be flying in F-15s. In addition to opening the Edwards flying events, the two pilots will be featured in a special trialogue tri·a·logue n. A conversation or discussion in which three people or groups participate. [tri- + (di)alogue.] program. The two will be joined by former ``Good Morning America'' host David Hartman David Hartman may refer to:
Also in the hangar will be a P-51D Mustang painted to look like the aircraft Yeager flew during World War II and the M2-F1 lifting body lift·ing body n. An aircraft or a spacecraft that has no wings and gains lift by the action of aerodynamic forces on its body. , a plywood airplane, property of the Smithsonian Institute, that Yeager flew in the 1960s. Yeager and Engle have known each since the 1950s when they were both stationed at George Air Force Base near Victorville. Engle would later become a student of Yeager's at the Test Pilot School, later the Aerospace Research Pilot School, at Edwards. Engle would go to the X-15 program, making 16 flights and earning astronaut wings for flying the rocket to the edge of space. He made two more visits to space, once in 1981 and again in 1985, during space shuttle missions <onlyinclude> This is a list of missions flown by space shuttles. As of 2006, only the United States has flown human spaceflight shuttle missions, in the Space Shuttle program, while the Soviet Union flew one unmanned flight of the Buran. . On Wednesday, the two men cracked the sonic boom in preparation for Saturday's event. ``We had a couple of flights to get back into it,'' Yeager said. ``Everything comes back to you.'' The Edwards open house and air show will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Gates will open at 7:30 a.m. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Pilots Joe Engle, left, and Chuck Yeager share a laugh after Wednesday's practice session in preparation for Saturday's flight at the Edwards Air Force Base open house. Jim Skeen/Staff Photographer |
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