Chuck Yeager, one of the greatest pilots in the US Air Force and the first man to break the sound barrier, has died at the age of 97.
Yeager was an excellent World War II fighter pilot – famous for shooting down five Germans in a single day in 1944 – and his exploits later became the subject of the 1983 Oscar-winning film The right stuff.
His death was announced on his Twitter account tonight by his wife Victoria.
I share that Here because I growth obsessed with fighter jets and addicted to flight sims, and while I had a lot of favorites –Air Force secret weapons and red baron to name just two– the ones I played most was 1991 Chuck Yeager’s dogfight.
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Published by EA for the PC, CYAC –the second Chuck Yeager game after the disappointing Chuck Yeager’s advanced flight training– –was an aerial combat playground where players in three different eras of fighter aircraft technology could wage battles over three completely separate wars. You can choose between World War II, Korea or Vietnam and then participate in a number of scenarios to test for different types of engagements.
However, these pre-baked missions were pretty limited after you played them a few times so the true longevity with CYAC came from the creation suite that allows you to create your own missions with a very cool story in the style of your own adventure.
It wasn’t the greatest flight simulation ever done – in fact it looked pretty bad and handled compared to some of its contemporaries– But the novelty of giving you three different wars to fight through and then the ability to use a Vietnam era jet against a WWII fighter on a mission of your own creation gave him a time you were in , loads of replayability couldn’t wait for more and more planes to be patched (or sold for $ 2 each).
And while it wasn’t exactly an authentic experience, it was more of a deathmatch shooter than a serious flight simulator, the fight against it did The offering was really fun especially if you used a joystick. For all of its shortcomings in some areas, the game has earned a ton of fans, to the point where it was in the 90s routinely end up on the lists of the best games of all time in PC game magazines.
Basically, if you grew up playing flight sims in the early 90s, there was a good chance you played a lot CYACand love every minute of it
Yeager’s involvement in the development of the game itself was limited, but EA’s licensing deal meant he still played a huge role from the player’s point of view. His face was all over in the game, from the intro screen to the menus, and he even showed up in the middle of missions with warnings.
There was even – that’s EA, remember – a deluxe version of the game that included a VHS tape that contained an interview with Yeager about his exploits and thoughts on dogfighting.
Yeager is survived by his wife and four children.
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