I'm surprised by this. He lived in the town I grew up in, and we were told repeatedly to not visit/call/attempt to interview him. One of my friends tried anyway, and the interview was mostly grumbles about reading his book instead of asking stupid questions. He was known to be a sourpuss and to not hesitate hitting people with his cane.

Maybe he changed along the way, maybe not. But I found his Twitter feed pretty fascinating since he (or maybe his wife or somebody else) would answer questions tweeted at him. Seemed pretty open to me for someone of his age and importance.

To be fair, twitter is a lot less invasive and disruptive than phone calls.

Eh, I'd say it's relative. In my experience it isn't so different for the older generation, since they aren't as used to being so available/visible.

It's difficult to know how he would've felt about it, though.

You can take or leave a Twitter question. It sits there waiting to be answered. It isn't in a rush.

You either ignore a ringing phone or tersely tell the person who called that you're busy. Not quite the same dynamic.

He really liked Twitter. It let him sit up on his high horse, while everyone else flitted around. That's where he was comfortable. Being above. Face to face or phone calls with strangers made him "equal" which he didn't see himself as.

Not judging, just pointing out it's interesting you can have this very likeable and well-loved and appreciated guy who internally sees himself (in this vocation of piloting) as the best of the best, which places him above everyone else in his estimation, which is a point of view that people who see as negative, and yet he was well-loved and he made it work. Only piloting tho, other things he didn't see himself as better than others, but better than was where he was comfortable so he associated most with his piloting.

Slightly premonitive that I had a dream last night about astronauts and test pilots, and very clearly the phrase "the right stuff" was repeated a few times, and in the dream I related it to (I think there was) that movie in the late 80s or 90s about "the right stuff" pilots with a few big names in it. Nothing in the dream about Yeager but I consider that a definite hit tho. I don't think I often get preinfo in dreams tho, so that's interesting.

I hate to be the guy that responds to the obvious throwaway, but have you broken the speed of sound in an airplane? Have you been a 2 time WWII fighter ace? He was the best of the best, and an inspiration for a generation.

Hero has become a joke word used to describe anyone that goes to their job in the morning, but General Yeager was a bona fide hero whose achievements would be viewed by the vast majority of humanity past and present as bordering on godlike. He's what the ancient Greeks meant when they talked about heroes.

Indeed he is. He was shot down over German occupied territory, managed to get to safety, only to come back and shoot down more German planes.

He was unreal.

>Maybe he changed along the way...

> He was nice to talk to, and humorously, had recently fallen off a horse... Again.

Maybe it was the meds?

Maybe the questions were stupid?

A friend of mine met him and said he was a sour puss as well but still amazing man. Can’t blame him really.

Are you referring to Grass Valley, or elsewhere? Just curious FYI, spent much of my life there.