Yeager Sets Air Mark in Wright Tribute

Test pilot Chuck Yeager paid tribute to an earlier generation of aviation pioneers Wednesday, flying from Edwards Air Force Base in California to Kitty Hawk, where the Wright brothers first flew 83 years earlier.

Yeager, a retired Air Force brigadier general who broke the sound barrier at Edwards in 1947, averaged just under 450 m.p.h. in his twin-engine turboprop plane. No record had existed for this type of aircraft between the two points, so any speed set a new standard.

“We laid down a pretty good record for people to shoot at,” Yeager said as he emerged from the Piper Cheyenne 400 LS.

Commemorates 1st Flight

The 2,361-mile trip was to commemorate the Wright brothers’ first flight on Dec. 17, 1903, and was planned to honor two significant places in aviation history--Edwards AFB and the First Flight airstrip.

As dawn broke over the Wright Brothers Memorial, about 200 people surged through police lines to greet Yeager when he stepped off the plane.

Mayor Lowell Perry of Kill Devil Hills presented Yeager a key to the city. The First Flight airstrip and historic site are officially in Perry’s town, but the world knows the area as Kitty Hawk because Orville and Wilbur Wright sent the telegram announcing their feat from Kitty Hawk, which is about four miles north of Kill Devil Hills.

Yeager and co-pilot Dav Davenport took off from Edwards at 10:40 p.m. PST on Tuesday, picked up 120-m.p.h. tail winds in the jet stream over Arkansas and reached the airspace over the Wright brothers memorial in 5:15:11 a.m. for an official speed of 449.55 m.p.h.

Like Christmas

Yeager said Dec. 17 is to pilots what Christmas is to Christians.

“We pilots celebrate the Wright brothers in spectacular ways,” he said. “You can get drunk all night or you can fly all night.”