Famed pilot Chuck Yeager set a record on the Outer Banks

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles “Chuck” Yeager at the Monument to the First Century of Flight in Kitty Hawk. [Photo by Sam Walker/OBX Today]

In December 1986, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles “Chuck” Yeager established the record for the fastest flight by a twin-engine turboprop between Edwards Air Force Base in California and the First Flight Airstrip at Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills.

The World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the “right stuff” when in 1947 he became the first person to fly faster than sound, died yesterday at 97.

In 1968, Yeager was inducted into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine.

Among the accolades he received the day of his flight to the Wright Brothers memorial, a key to the Town of Kill Devil Hills. He is remembered with a pylon at the Monument to the First Century of Flight in Kitty Hawk.

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