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 the 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...

Surveys the life of the country boy from West Virginia who became a great pilot, ending his career as an Air Force brigadier general with more than 10,000 hours of flying time in some 180 different aircraft.

Relates how the young pilot distinguished himself in World War II and subsequently became the first person to break the sonic barrier.

A biography of noted test pilot and retired Air Force brigadier general Chuck Yeager, who, in 1947, became the first pilot to officially break the sound barrier.

The wonder of flight has long captured the human imagination. In this beguiling history ranging from the first aircraft to astronauts and beyond, astronomer David Darling tells the stories of the true life adventurers whose wonder has translated into bizarre contraptions, magnificent achievements and, sometimes, startling folly.