Pilot Chuck Yeager, Who Broke Sound Barrier, Sues Airbus for Trademark
Infringement
Chuck Yeager, the retired U.S. Air Force pilot who
broke the sound barrier, has sued Airbus SE, accusing the aerospace company of
using his name and likeness without permission to promote a new high-speed
helicopter.
In a complaint filed on Wednesday that refers to him as "one
of the most, if not the most, famous pilots of all time," the 96-year-old Yeager
objected to a June 2017 piece on Airbus' website about making the Airbus Racer a
fast and cost-effective way to fly.
The piece quoted Guillaume Faury, now
Airbus' chief executive officer and at the time Airbus Helicopters' CEO, as
saying: "Seventy years ago, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier," and Airbus
was now "trying to break the cost barrier. It cannot be 'speed at any
cost.'"
Yeager accused Airbus of trademark infringement and taking away
his right of publicity through "fraudulent" conduct, in which it deceived the
public into believing he endorsed it.
"This is not a company that sells
burritos," Yeager's lawyer, Lincoln Bandlow, said in a telephone interview on
Thursday. "It sells aircraft, and you can't find a man more valuable to
associate with aircraft than Chuck Yeager."
Airbus spokesmen said the
company, which is headquartered in Toulouse, France, had no comment on pending
litigation.
Yeager is seeking unspecified compensatory, punitive and
reputational damages, as well as restitution, in a lawsuit filed in the federal
court in Santa Ana, California.
He has filed similar lawsuits against
other defendants in the past.
Yeager became the first person to break the
speed of sound, known as Mach 1, piloting his rocket engine-powered Bell X-1
over southern California on Oct. 14, 1947.
He became familiar to a
younger generation 36 years later when the actor Sam Shepard portrayed him in
the movie, "The Right Stuff," based on the Tom Wolfe book.
Yeager said
the website piece was not Airbus's first use of his name and likeness without
permission, saying it previously used an unauthorized video of his 2008 visit to
the company.
He said Airbus Helicopters had asked for permission to use
his name in press releases, but rejected his demand for more than $1 million and
veto power over how it was used.
"There were some negotiations but they
fell through, and litigation was unfortunately the next course," Bandlow
said.
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