Brigadier General Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the pilot who first broke the sound barrier back in 1947, was honored on August 31 with a slightly-larger-than-life-size bronze statue of himself. The statue stands in "Sound Barrier Park," a small patch of grass and trees on the corner of Yeager and Rosamond Blvds, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Edwards was the base from which Yeager began his historic flight. The statue joins a nearby stone monument honoring the flight itself.

Yeager, 83, was on hand for the unveiling. He continued to fly supersonic jets for decades after his accomplishment, and last broke the sound barrier at age 74.

The statue of Yeager, standing in a flight suit, cradling a helmet under one arm, looks just like another statue of Yeager, erected in 1985 in front of Yeager's high school in Hamlin, West Virginia. There doesn't appear to have been any deliberate copying by the new sculptor; it just seems as if that's the way to best represent a subsonic Chuck Yeager. [09/17/2006]

February 10, 2012