Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Apex. A Hero's Heroes

Chuck Yeager was the best of the best in the 1950s. As Tom Wolfe puts it - in 'The Right Stuff' (1979):
"For every militairy pilot knew where the apex of the great ziggurat was located. You could point it out on a map. The place was Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert. 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Everyone knew who resided there, everyone knew the name of the individual who ranked foremost in the Olympus, the ace of all the aces, as it were, among the true brothers of the right stuff."

On which shoulders did Chuck stand on? Who are his heroes? He gave an answer to this question on facebook (May 6th, 2015):

P.S. "Col Boyd" is Albert Boyd (1906-1976). He was Chuck's commanding officer at Edwards and a test pilot too. Not John Boyd (1927-1997) of whom I wrote before: here 

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