2020-12-23 Wed

Gen. Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager, the United States Air Force officer and test pilot who died Dec. 7 at age 97, is one of just a handful of Americans whose history-making achievements in aviation were commemorated on a U.S. stamp during their lifetimes. Yeager’s breathtaking feat brought America one step closer to spaceflight, but another much earlier breakthrough in an aircraft was similarly honoured. The aircraft is now housed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. For Yeager, the first man to successfully pilot an aircraft faster than the speed of sound, that honour came Oct. 14, 1997, exactly 50 years to the day after his pioneering supersonic flight. The 32c commemorative symbolically shows Yeager’s orange Bell X-1 mid-wing rocket plane nosing through the barrier at a speed of 700 mph and an altitude of 43,000 feet. Visit philamart to view and purchase variety of stamps from all over the world.

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