George Welch’s Story
Image taken from wikipedia.com
George Welch has become renown as one of the most proficient pilot of his time. On December 7, 1941 when Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Welch was one of the few men to get airborne and take the fight to the air. Welch shot down numberous planes for his actions on that day. However, this man has been the source of controversy since his days as a test pilot.
In 1947, Chuck Yeager, flying an X-1 test plane, broke the sound barrier. However, Welch had claimed he had broken the sound barrier on the exact same day. Welch went into a vertical dive and felt the sonic boom of going Mach 1. This was not in level flight though and no one was around to take notes and observe like there was for Yeagers flight. This greatly dissapointed Welch. He would become very much a daredevil in the pilots seat for the rest of his flying career. In 1954, complications arose with his aircraft and he was forced to eject. He was found on the ground still in the ejection seat and mortally wounded. He was announced dead a few hours later.
