Yeager: An Autobiography [Paperback]

Chuck Yeager (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 1, 1986

General Chuck Yeager, the greatest test pilot of them all -- the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound . . .the World War II flying ace who shot down a Messerschmitt jet with a prop-driven P-51 Mustang . . .the hero who defined a certain quality that all hotshot fly-boys of the postwar era aimed to achieve: the right stuff.



Now Chuck Yeager tells his whole incredible life story with the same "wide-open, full throttle" approach that has marked his astonishing career.  What it was really like enaging in do-or-die dogfights over Nazi Europe.  How after being shot over occupied France, Yeager somehow managed to escape.  The amazing behind-the-scenes story of smashing the sound barrier despite cracked ribs from a riding accident days before.



The entire story is here, in Yeager's own words, and in wondeful insights from his wife and those friends and colleagues who have known him best.  It is the personal and public story of a man who settled for nothing less than excellence, a one-of-a-kind portrait of a true American hero.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA Bona fide heroes are a rare breed, and while Chuck Yeager would be the first to deny he was one, his life story tells a different tale. Here he describes his early life in the hills of West Virginia; his years as fighter pilot in World War II, where he was shot down in occupied France and escaped with the help of the French Resistance; his love of flying. His coolness under pressure; his knowledge of how everything on his plane worked; and his extraordinary luck saved his life in many instances. Brash, opinionated, stubborn and given to wild antics, Yeager also comes across as a man of integrity and courage. Yeager both lived and made aviation history. He tells his story vividly and pulls no punches in describing the events and the people who made history with him. Diana Hirsch, PGCMLS, Md.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

People who know nothing else about aviation know that it was Chuck Yeager who broke the sound barrier. Those who have read Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff also know he did it with broken ribs from a nocturnal horse race. Readers of this engrossing work will find these circumstances typical of the way Yeager has always done things. In matter-of-fact language that covers both suspenseful flying descriptions and high times with drunken flying buddies, Yeager holds one's attention with the same ease that he brought to research and test flying. There is understatement in his descriptions of combat flying over Europe, of family life and his displeasure over having to be gone so long, of the years in the California desert; and his confident tone enhances these and other reminiscences in what has to be the aviation literature event of the year, and a bonus for general readers, too. BOMC main selection. Mel D. Lane, Sacramento, Cal.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (August 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553256742
• ISBN-13: 978-0553256741
• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Aviation

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Life Worth Living Vicariously May 3, 2006

By G. D. Brennan III VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

If I could jump inside one person's head Being-John-Malkovich style and experience their entire life, beginning-to-end, without regard to anything but the sheer roller coaster thrill of it, I'd probably pick Chuck Yeager. (Granted, the guy's not dead yet. But unless he meets a truly horrendous end--eaten alive, say, by Bengal Tigers, while slow-roasting over a barbecue pit--I'd consider myself a truly lucky man to see everything he's seen and do everything he's done.)

Ripping through the sound barrier in a bullet-shaped orange rocket plane, battling Messerschmitts in the cold European skies, testing exotic aircraft of all shapes and sizes in the bleak Mojave desert, hunting and fishing and hiking the high Sierras, hooting and hollering with friends on crazy drunken misadventures--it all sounds too fun to be legal, and except for the hooting and hollering part, I haven't done any of it.

What's more, he lived the kind of life that people don't seem to believe in anymore, the life of the self-made man who rises from nothing, who picks himself up by his own bootstraps and succeeds through good ol' Yankee Doodle initiative, ability and gumption. One of the nice things about this book, though, is that he doesn't rub it in. He's the first one to acknowledge how lucky he's been to live the life he's lived and live to tell about it. An upside-down-bolt on an airplane aileron, parachute shroud lines that almost burnt through after an ejection gone awry--any of these things could have ended this remarkable life long before old age, and he knows it.

Beyond the good luck, though, he knew enough not to press his luck. One realizes, reading this book, that Yeager's flying career's remarkable not because he took chances, but because he didn't get so cocky and full of himself that he took one chance too many. In the test pilot business, it's better to fade away than to burn out (or up).

I last read this when I was a kid, not long after it came out--I'd been blown away by "The Right Stuff" and was nuts about everything aviation-and-space related. I don't think I've seen it in twenty years, but I've had a hankering to read it for a while now, so I picked it up, put down the boring weighty intellectual tomes I usually read, and ripped through it in a couple days, eagerly smuggling it into the bathroom at work to steal some pleasure out of the boring workday. I'll never live this life, never get a pilot's license--with my narcolepsy and my bad eyes, I probably shouldn't even have a driver's license--but thanks to this book I can live Chuck Yeager's life vicariously, for a couple days, anyway.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Balls Out!!! August 3, 2000

By Richard Ross-Adams

Format:Paperback

Legendary flying ace Chuck Yeager has put on paper not only his life, but his amazing character as well.

Since I was a child I was told the stories of Chuck Yeager by my brothers.One of whom was an aviator himself, and was in awe of this man.

When I read his autobiography, which is definitely one of the best books I've ever read, I felt a new kind of respect for the man. A man who was never given a college education, yet managed to be one of the greatest aviators and men in history. He overcame the odds more than a few times.

What touched me most about this book was it's honesty.He never embellishes the truth, and tells it like it is, always. The book may not be the best articulated book in history, but that is because that is not Chuck's way.

He recounts all the major events in aviation history with a style that reveals his passion, and his determination that if you are going to do something, do it right.Eloquently put by Chuck, do it balls out.

I most enjoyed his manner in the book, fun loving without losing sight of himself, his demeanour is that of a mischievous brother who'll stand up for what he believes in, no matter what.

This man is a role model and one of the world's finest heroes. Read the book and meet the man.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A straight shooting biography of several amazing lives. January 10, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Yeager personafied the WWII generation, the finest ever produced by America. His humble description of his amazing life is inspiring to all and incredible to those with a love of aviation. Besides his own history, he chronicles the life of several other people, such as lady pilots Pancho Barnes and Jackie Cochran, who also lived lives that read like movie scripts. A book that has to be read several times to be fully appreciated. Also check out "The First and the Last", by Adolf Galland, for an equally unusual true account by a great aviator and leader. Farron Dacus, Irving, Texas.