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I saw Neil and his T-28 at many air shows. His accomplishments are legendary. He will be sorely missed by the aviation world. Here's the article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
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NEIL R. ANDERSON | 1933-2006
Pilot legend Neil Anderson was a top flier and seller of General Dynamics' F-16
By CHRIS VAUGHN
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH -- Neil R. Anderson flew more than 250 types of airplanes and had about 15,000 hours in the air, some of them in aircraft still very much experimental.
But the story that was probably the most told and best remembered and that spawned the most legends about Mr. Anderson involved a belly landing.
It happened at Carswell Air Force Base in May 1975 when the YF-16 prototype developed by General Dynamics was competing for a next-generation lightweight fighter contract with the Defense Department. Mr. Anderson, a GD test pilot, had the airplane out for a practice run when one of the main landing gears wouldn't drop.
He flew around until he was almost out of gas and then came in for a wheels-up landing on the grass next to the runway. The plane survived, and so did Mr. Anderson. Of course, the F-16 went on to become the best-selling jet fighter in history.
"He probably saved the F-16 program by doing that," said John Fergione, a past president of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. "He saved the airplane because he did not eject out of it. I'd never heard of [a belly landing] in a jet before. I've seen the video several times. It was spectacular."
Mr. Anderson, easily one of the most storied and accomplished pilots to ever launch an aircraft, died Monday morning at Baylor All Saints Medical Center of cancer. He was 72.
Born Dec. 2, 1933, in Omaha, Neb., the son of a career Army soldier, Mr. Anderson planned to enter the priesthood. Then one day in college he met a Navy pilot.
"That was the end of priesthood and Creighton University," he told the Star-Telegram in 1996. "I said, 'I'm flying.'"
He entered the Marine Corps as a pilot, flying active duty for five years until 1958. He then joined the reserves, eventually retiring in 1974 as a lieutenant colonel.
He earned a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1961 from St. Louis University. In 1967, Mr. Anderson joined General Dynamics -- now Lockheed Martin -- which sent him to the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
He flew versions of the F-111 Aardvark for several years, but he made his name with the F-16, an airplane he most certainly sold better than anyone else.
"People still talk about the way he flew the F-16 in air shows, and he shaped a lot of decisions about how we demonstrated the airplane to international customers," said Ralph Heath, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., in a statement. "He was considered a hero to a lot of employees at our company."
Shortly after the belly landing, Mr. Anderson, two other pilots, two engineers and a handful of manufacturing employees led by Bill Plumlee took the F-16 to 38 air shows in nine European countries in 50 days, including the famous Paris air show.
"He awed them," said Plumlee, who retired as director of manufacturing. "He would put in a whole air show and never leave the perimeter of the field. He was an airman, one of the best I've ever seen."
Mr. Anderson was no hot dog, either. He was a pilot deeply committed to safety, one who lived the cliché that there are old test pilots and bold test pilots but there are no old, bold test pilots.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Bob Efferson, who knew Mr. Anderson, remembers well the belly landing at Carswell.
Efferson, working near the runway, fired a flare to wave off Mr. Anderson's landing when it became clear that he had only two of the three landing gears.
"When it finally stopped, he jumped out of the cockpit and ran about 50 yards and threw his helmet on the ground," Efferson said. "You don't belly in modern-day fighters, but he did it. He did a remarkable job."
Mr. Anderson belonged to the Society of Experimental Test Pilots for 36 years and was active in the group. He had a legendary name even with Soviet test pilots, some of whom he finally got to meet in 1991 in Fort Worth.
"He's well-known around the world," said Fergione, who is with the F-22 test force at Edwards. "I don't know of a member who doesn't at least know his name."
In 1983, he won the prestigious unlimited air race championship in Reno, Nev., flying a highly modified Sea Fury 426 mph.
Mr. Anderson had friends all over the globe. He carried not a whiff of cockiness, and he could make anyone feel at ease.
"He was a lot more extroverted than me," said Phil Oestricher, the first man to fly the YF-16. "He liked to be around people. I'd rather do the technical stuff. We were a good team."
After retiring in 1996 from Lockheed Martin, where he had become an executive in international marketing and business development, Mr. Anderson continued to fly. He owned a hangar at Hicks Field and founded a group of pilots that owned three T-28 Trojan trainers that they flew in air shows.
Mr. Anderson was also active with the Fort Worth aviation advisory board and the Chamber of Commerce aviation committee and was instrumental in the restoration of the B-36 Peacemaker bomber in the early 1990s.
Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Jean Anderson; sons Charles Anderson and David Anderson of Fort Worth, and Ken Anderson of San Antonio; and two grandsons.
Staff writer Bob Cox contributed to this report.
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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida
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