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Yeager involved in minor plane crash in Rabun County

Posted 8:01AM on Friday 3rd October 2003 ( 21 years ago )
CLAYTON - A plane piloted by famed test pilot Chuck Yeager went off the runway and into a small ditch Thursday after being caught in a cross wind while landing at a new airport community in Rabun County Thursday.

Neither Yeager, 80, nor his wife were injured, and their plane was not seriously damaged in the accident at Heaven's Landing, according to the Rabun County Sheriff's Office.

The community is honoring Yeager and other World War II aces by naming its streets after them. Yeager is scheduled to be the guest speaker at an aviation symposium Friday night at the Rabun County Civic Center.

Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier. He did so Oct. 14 1947 in the bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane over the Mojave Desert in California. The flight was depicted in the 1983 movie, ``The Right Stuff,'' which made Yeager's name familiar to a generation of Americans unfamiliar with his aerial exploits.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/10/171583

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