Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany

by Donald L. Miller

Charles “Chuck” Yeager, a twenty-one-year-old rowdy from Myra, West Virginia, was shot down fifty miles east of Bordeaux, in southwestern France, by three Focke-Wulf 190s. Flying only his eighth combat mission, Yeager—who had enlisted as a mechanic—would survive the war to become the first man to break the sound barrier and the world’s most famous test pilot, the featured character in the book and film The Right Stuff. “I knew I was going down; I was barely able to unfasten my safety belt and crawl over the seat before my burning P-51 began to snap and roll, heading for the ground. I just fell out of the cockpit when the plane turned upside down—my canopy was shot away.” Yeager went into a free fall, not daring to pull his ripcord until he had dropped far enough to avoid getting strafed by one of the pursuing fighters.