December 20, 2020

This week’s one hour radio broadcast with host Dale Throneberry and co-host Bernadette Remski:

  • Review of our 2007 interview with General Chuck Yeager (1923-2020)
  • Colonel Bud Anderson, a WWII P-51 Mustang Fighter Pilot who Yeager described as ” a mongoose, .. the best fighter pilot I’ve ever seen”

Celebrating Fighter Pilots Yeager and Anderson

Hosted by Dale Throneberry

General Chuck Yeager, “The Fastest Man Alive”

On October 14, 1947 he dropped away from the B-29, fired all four chambers of his engine in rapid sequence and bolted away from the launch aircraft. Accelerating upward, he shut down two chambers and tested the moveable tail as his Machmeter registered numbers of 0.83, .88 and 0.92. Moved in small increments, it provided effective control. He reached an indicated Mach number of 0.92 as he leveled out at 42,000 feet and relit a third chamber of his engine. The X-1 Glamorous Glennis rapidly accelerated to 0.98 Mach and then, at 43,000 feet, the needle on his Machmeter jumped off the scale.

Chuck Yeager had just crossed the invisible threshold to flight faster than the speed of sound. He attained a top speed of Mach 1.06 (700 mph). When Yeager’s achievement was finally declassified in June of 1948, he was quickly accorded celebrity status as “The Fastest Man Alive,” and was awarded the most prestigious honors in aviation. The words accompanying the Collier Trophy aptly summarized the magnitude of his flight: “This is an epochal achievement in the history of world aviation–the greatest since the first successful flight of the original Wright Brothers’ airplane, forty-five years ago.”

For More Information: www.chuckyeager.com

To Fly and Fight Col Bud Anderson

Colonel Bud Anderson, “Triple Ace”

In 1990 Col Anderson wrote an autobiography with another author which has been described by The Historian Of The Air Force as “the finest pilot memories of WW II”. In this book titled “TO FLY AND FIGHT’ General Chuck Yeager describes Anderson as ” a mongoose, .. the best fighter pilot I’ve ever seen”.

When Bud reached 90 years he voluntarily quit flying but remains an avid supporter of aviation. He lectures on his flying experiences, has consulted on computer flying games, participates in written and online interviews and writes articles for aviation periodicals. Featured in the History Channel “Dog Fight” series and the Military Channel “Showdown: Air Combat.”

Bud was honored to be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2015 with the American Fighter Aces.

For More Information: www.cebudanderson.com (Bud Anderson’s P-51 Mustang “Old Crow”)

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