Statue of Chuck Yeager

Hamlin, West Virginia

Test pilot Chuck Yeager's hometown didn't erect a statue of its favorite son until after "The Right Stuff" made him famous in the 1980s, but he's depicted as he looked on October 14, 1947 -- the day he broke the Sound Barrier in the X-1 rocket plane. In life-size bronze, green and pigeon-stained with age, Chuck stands in his vintage flight suit, holding his helmet in one hand, his gear slung over his shoulder, wearing a confident smile. The statue was unveiled on the 40th anniversary of Chuck's record-breaking flight.

Yeager stands atop an eight-foot-high platform outside of his old high school -- class of 1941 -- safely out of the way of demons that he never encountered up in the supersonic thin air: teenagers.