Chuck Yeager's Other Accident

[Gary Noel]

On the night of October 12, 1947, Chuck Yeager and his wife were racing back to a dude ranch. Chuck was slightly ahead on this moonless night and didn’t see that the gate they had exited earlier was now closed. Chuck’s horse hit the gate and Chuck hit the ground, an accident resulting in two broken ribs.

On December 10, 1963 Yeager had another accident near California City, California. While traveling a bit over Mach 2 during a test flight and climbing to a near record altitude, Yeager’s aircraft fell flat and went into the first of 14 flat spins, the pilot parachuting out at 8,500 feet during the 13th spin.

Yeager’s emergency oxygen supply had caught fire and his seat, now in flames, tumbled out with him and struck him in the face. Yeager sustained third and second degree burns on his head and neck, requiring a month of treatment in the hospital. The fire also injured his left hand. Fortunately, he healed without disfigurement.

As Garth Allen has noted, Mars or Saturn tends to be in the foreground of a lunar return prior to a serious accident and Yeager’s SLR prior to this accident featured Mars separating from the Ascendant by a meager 5 degrees. When Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time, both Mercury and Mars were in the foreground of his SLR. This time Yeager was traveling twice the speed of sound and once again Mars and Mercury were in the foreground of his SLR which occurred December 1, 1963 at 8:33:21 A. M. PST.

According to a website called This Day In Aviation the aircraft crashed at 35N 07 25, 118W 08 50. It was completely destroyed.

I find it amusing that when Yeager first broke the sound barrier in 1947, military pilots, airline pilots and pilots from all over America began speaking with a West Virginia twang, Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff, calling the trend “Pygmalion in reverse.”

[Jim Eshelman]

Another great example.

Yeager's natal chart is dominated especially be a partile Venus-Saturn square on his angles and both octile his Sun. When he first broke the sound barrier, Sun was the degree of his Saturn and Eastpoint square his Venus. For this second event, Moon was in that degree (and thus on Sun for the breaking sound barrier chart). How close depends on what time of day this occurred (I didn't see that in your notes).

Transiting Jupiter squared natal Pluto that day, which usually means some form of "gain from separation." In this case, I'm inclined to interpret it as successful and fortunate ejection!

And yes, quite a lunar return. Venus-Saturn seems to follow him around, since Venus on his natal Saturn was the most angular in this chart (an aspect known for disfiguration; fortunately his was minor). And there, as the only transit-to-transit foreground aspect, is that Mercury-Mars conjunction just above Ascendant. Venus to natal Saturn plus his natal Venus-Saturn plus explosive natal Mars-Pluto (which moved into a partile mundane square within this lunar, even though they don't have a natal ecliptical aspect) round it out very nicely. Here are the technical highlights of the SLR Gary beautifully summarized:

Code: Select all

Pl Longitude   Lat   Speed    RA    Decl    Azi     Alt     PVL    Ang G
                           Transiting Planets                           
Ve  8Sg19'12"  1S14 + 1°15' 272°48' 24S40 119°44' - 1°10'   1°20' 100% A 
Ma  2Sg58'56"  0S53 +45'14" 266°57' 24S17 122°52' + 3°10' 356°14'  96% A 
Me 29Sc 3'22"  2S12 + 1°30' 262°34' 25S28 126°25' + 5°20' 353°23'  88% A 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Radical Planets                             
Sa 25Vi50'44"  2N40 - 2'39" 199°33'  5S23 180°42' +49°30' 269°24' 100% M 
Ve 26Sg 7'12"  2N 5 + 1° 6' 291°41' 19S50 105°33' -12°35'  13° 2'  99% E 
Pl 15Ge33'33"  2S47 - 0'37" 100°26' 20N18 292° 0' + 4° 8' 184°28'  95% D 
Ma  1Ar24'19"  0N10 +42'50"  23°42' 10N 4 354°52' -44°41'  95°10'  93% I 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Class 1 Aspects     
tMe co tMa  2°50' 89% M 
----------------------  
tVe sq rSa  1°56' 90% M 
----------------------  
rVe sq rSa  0°16'100%   
rMa sq rPl  0°42' 99% M 

Generally background aspects don't have a lot of voice in a lunar, but one that I need to mention is that there is a Moon-Jupiter partile mundane square (0°59'). Perhaps this was the protective element?