Chuck Yeager's Other Accident
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 1:23 am
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.”
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.”