Charles E. Yeager (born 1923), a test pilot for the United States Air Force, was the first person to fly a plane faster than the speed of sound.

Charles ("Chuck") E. Yeager was born in Myra, West Virginia on February 13, 1923. His father was a driller for natural gas in the West Virginia coal fields. As the United States began mobilizing for World War II, Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1941 at the age of 18. In 1943 he became a flight officer, a non-commissioned officer who could pilot aircraft. He went to England where he flew fighter planes over France and Germany during the last two years of the war.

In his first eight missions, at the age of 20, Yeager shot down two German fighters. On his ninth mission he was shot down over German-occupied France, suffering flak wounds. He bailed out of the plane and was rescued by...