Yeager Dropped From Shuttle Report

WASHINGTON —  The report on the Challenger space shuttle accident will be issued minus the name of one of its high-visibility members, a legendary test pilot who had been expected to help bring stature and credibility to the investigation.

Sources said that retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, who 29 years ago became the first person to fly through the sound barrier, has been notified by commission Chairman William P. Rogers that his name will not be included on the accident report because he has taken virtually no part in the investigation over the last 3 1/2 months.

When asked in a five-word interview Tuesday whether he had been told that his name was being dropped from the commission’s final report, Yeager replied: “Yep.”

When asked if that bothered him, he said: “Nope.”

And, when asked if his failure to participate had been due to previous commitments, he declared: “You got it.”

Yeager is now an aerospace consultant in Cedar Ridge, Calif., and has become a ubiquitous figure in television commercials.

Commission sources who asked not to be identified said that Yeager had appeared only briefly at one of the panel’s closed hearings and, according to one account, departed after observing to a fellow commissioner that the shuttle obviously should not be launched during cold weather.