Chuck Yeager made history in 1947 when he became the first person to fly an aeroplane faster than the speed of sound. He was brazen, brash, and full of courage. Yeager was a young fighter ace in the US Army Air Force who flew a P-51 Mustang over Nazi-occupied Europe before he became America's most well-known test pilot. His accomplishments are legendary. Yeager lost his life after shooting down his first enemy aircraft, but he was able to survive with the aid of the French Resistance and his own bomb-making abilities. For saving the life of a fellow American, he was awarded the Bronze Star. Against regulation, and only with the approval of General Eisenhower himself, Yeager returned to duty as a fighter pilot. While fiercely protecting Allied bombers, he shot down eleven enemy planes, including a lightning-fast Messerschmitt Me 262, the world's first jet-powered airplane, and completed more than sixty missions.