CHUCK YEAGER AND BUD ANDERSON TO SPEAK AT CAF SEMINAR

Midland, Texas (Feb. 4, 2002) - MIDLAND, Texas (Feb. 4, 2002) - The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) and the American Airpower Heritage Museum (AAHM) will present a seminar that features legendary fighter pilots Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson, 2 p.m., Saturday, April 27 at the CAF's main hangar at Midland International Airport in Midland, Texas.

Yeager and Anderson will speak of their experiences as fighter pilots with the 357th Fighter Group in England during World War II and as Air Force test pilots. Admission for the seminar series is $2 for museum members and $5 for non-members. Children under the age of 12 are free. Season passes are available for $20 for members and $39 for non-members. Seminar admission includes admission fee to the museum.

Yeager began his military career in 1941 when he enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps. He served briefly as an aircraft mechanic and entered enlisted pilot training in 1942. He graduated as an enlisted flight officer and was assigned to the 363rd Fighter Squadron (357th Fighter Group). In 1943, the unit was sent to England where Yeager entered combat flying a P-51 Mustang. He was shot down over occupied France during his eighth mission in 1944, but evaded capture. He returned to combat with his squadron and flew 56 more missions. He ended the war with a victory total of 11.5. He returned to the United States in 1945 where he would eventually be assigned as a maintenance officer to the Flight Test Division at Wright Field in Ohio. In 1946 he graduated from the Flight Performance School and was selected in 1947 as project pilot to fly the rocket powered Bell X-1. After launch from a B-29 on Oct. 14, 1947, he accelerated to a speed of Mach 1.06 at 42,000 feet and shattered the myth of the "sound barrier" forever. Spectacular though it was, Yeager's first supersonic flight represented just the beginning of a seven-year career at Edwards during which he would establish himself as one of the truly legendary figures among the world's fraternity of test pilots.

Anderson is a World War II triple ace fighter pilot and a veteran military experimental test pilot. During World War II he served two combat tours escorting heavy bombers over Europe in the P-51 Mustang. He flew 116 combat missions and destroyed 16 and ¼ enemy aircraft in aerial combat and another one on the ground. Anderson has an extensive flight testing background spanning a 25-year period. He flew many models of the early jet fighters and was involved in two very unusual flight test programs. He has flown over 130 different types of aircraft and logged over 7,500 flying hours. Anderson was inducted into the CAF's American Airman Combat Hall of Fame in 2001.

The 2002 "Remembrance of War" Seminar Series is sponsored in part by the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

For more information, contact Tina Corbett at (432) 563-1000, ext. 2231.

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