Who is your avaition hero?

[Steve Nelson]

'nuff said.



(I took this snapshot last week at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, MI. It's part of a current exhibit on aircraft carriers.)

SN

[Robbie Stuart]

My Dad is #1
LT. Charles F. Stuart
381st Ftr. Sq.
363rd Ftr. Grp
9th AAF
Europe WWII
111 Combat Missions
B3-E "Stinky"



Cherbourg France June 1944

Robbie

[Jim W]

+1 for Eric Brown. I have had the pleasure of meeting him twice, I can honestly say he is the most remarkable man I have ever met and a true gentleman.

It was his articles regarding flying German and Allied aircraft in Air International in the 1970's that got me interested in aviation. To meet him 30 years later when he was 90 after giving a lecture for one and a half hours without notes, then sign books and chat to people for a couple of hours and finally get in his car to drive home for 3 hours or so in our crowded south east roads impressed me as you have probably noticed. i only hope I am as lucid as he is if I am lucky enough to reach that age.

He also counted Neil Armstrong as one of his friends-another modest man from what I have read

I would also add Joe Smith to the list of Designers

[Cindy]

Any pilot who ever brought their bird down and lived to fly another day. Especially, those who brought down their bird when it was totally shot to sh+!. But...if I had to give names, two come to mind.

Karen Morss - She is an aviatrix, a wife of an aviator, a friend, a mentor and so much more! Without her help, I never would have gotten my PPL.

Duncan Miller - Anyone who ever met Duncan knew he had great stories to share, beautiful airplanes to show off, a passion for aviation. He welcomed all like they were his family. He was a wonderful friend and an inspiration. I will miss him always. Pals Forever Duncon, Pals Forever.

[CoastieJohn]

I would go more with groups of folks whose teamwork stood out as heroic based on risk and accomplishment for the times.

1. The Doolittle crews
2. The NC-4 crew
3. The Byrd crews

[Mossie]

It's got to be the one and only Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown.

Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, RN, CBE, DSC, AFC, Hon FRAeS (born 21 January 1919) is a British former Royal Navy officer and test pilot who, in testing 487 different types of aircraft, has flown more types of aircraft than anyone else in history.[1][2] He also holds the world record for most aircraft carrier landings performed (2,407)[1] and is the Fleet Air Arm's most decorated living pilot.[3]

After World War II‚ Brown commanded the Enemy Aircraft Flight, an elite group of pilots who test-flew captured German aircraft. That experience makes Brown one of the few men qualified to compare both Allied and Axis aeroplanes as they flew during the war. He flight-tested 53 German aircraft, including the Me 163B Komet rocket fighter. His flight test of this rocket plane, apparently the only one by an Allied pilot, was accomplished unofficially: it was deemed to be more or less suicidal due to the notoriously dangerous propellants C-Stoff and T-Stoff. Brown also flight tested the Messerschmitt Me 262, the Arado Ar 234 and the Heinkel He 162 turbojet combat aircraft.

And a lovely very modest man, with not one iota of arrogance !

[gemmer]

Ed Dyess.

CO of the 21st Pursuit Squadron in the Philippines, Nov.1941- April 1942. Fought bravely in the air AND on the ground during the stand on Bataan. Endured the march and Camp O'Donnell. Escaped with a group of POWs including squadron mate Sam Grashio from Davao in 1943. He was rescued by guerrilla forces and returned to the US. After revealing the horrors of the Death March and the camps, he returned to flight status, only to be killed in the crash of his P-38 that witinesses said he steered away from homes in his path.

Duane

[Airlift48]

Ted Striker.


Seriously though, Id have to say Tim Chopp, President of the BAHF. He gave me an opportunity to get involved and has taught me nearly everything I know about airplanes and aviation.

Without him, I'd have never found my way into this wonderful community.

KK

[sandiego89]

I dislike the word "hero" but 3 life stories I am influenced/intrigued by:

Another vote for Crossfield- the X-15 stuff is legendary.
John Farley, I'm a big Harrier fan, and no one could make a Harrier dance like him-he still posts in a few forums.
Paul Tibbets

[redvanner]

My personal aviation hero is Ernst Udet. Neither because of his achievements in WW I (he was second in the "kill list" behind Manfred von Richthofen), nor because of his rank or what he did during WW II. But because of what he did, achieved and showed to others just between. He not only was flying planes, but gliders as well. He was doing stunts in films (he flew in a lot of films in the 1920´s and 30´s), airshows and aerobatics that weren´t done before. He had his own company, building planes he initiated (not designed himself, but set the parameters). He made a lot of money, but spent even more, on planes, women and liquors. And he was not a Nazi, though he knew several (not the last Hermann Goering, who was his commanding officer in WW I). He tried to use them (buying the 2 Curtiss Hawks he owned), but was used by them instead.



Pic: Ernst Udet in a Udet U 12 "Flamingo"

Michael

[Lynn Allen]

Jimmy Doolittle and R. A "Bob" Hoover

[JohnB]

I have a feeling if you asked Wilbur Wright, Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Bob Hoover and most of the great combat pilots, they'd say the same thing.

The greats are usually modest...they have no need to inflate their images to others or themselves.

Allow me to mention my dad, who started off as a B-17 pilot in the war. Too late to see much/any combat, he served with the 463rd BG in Italy.
He went onto spend 27 years in the AF, much of his time being a maintenance officer in a F-84 outfit in Korea, flying C-82s and C-124s...(and interestingly, C-122s), and ending up as a director of maintenance for the 11th FIS and their F-106s. He retired as a LC.

One uncle was a navigator in B-24s and B-17s and was shot down shortly after his unit switched to Flying Fortresses. He sat out the war in a German POW camp. he's still with us at 93. He spent most of his life as an accountant for a national industrial firm.

Another uncle fly gliders into Normandy. He remained in the AF as a senior NCO. He passed away from cancer in 1970.

None of these men are famous, but each of them did their part in winning WWII and the Cold War. History is made by more than the famous.

[Enemy Ace]

My Heros?
Those who went, knowing they might not make it back.
Those who did not return.
Those who see our friends and family safely to their destinations in all kinds of weather.
Those who teach.
And those who aspire to learn, so that they may one day take the places of those above.

[gliderman1]

JohnB,
Please email me concerning your uncle who was a glider pilot.

gliderman.one@frontier.com

[Pathfinder]

The pilots, navigators and enlisted crews and ground guys of the IX Troop Carrier Command Pathfinder School (Prov); later IX TCC PF Group (Prov); who always went first---the tip of the lance--and the men they dropped to lead the airborne assaults of WW2. They made history ten years before I was born-and in my 36 year relationship with them they have honored a certified card-carrying civilian by making me an honorary Pathfinder. A truely humbling honor.

Dave Berry
Historian
IX TCC Pathfinder Group (Prov)