posted 02-05-2010 07:27 PM               

It was a great event, the well known people attending were Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Bill Anders, Chuck Yeager, Fitz Fulton, Capt. Sullenberger, Dick Rutan, Bob Gilliland, with many other test pilots and industry people.

Since it was a smaller crowd than others I've attended with Armstrong and Aldrin, it was easier to walk around and I had a chance to talk with everyone. I asked their opinions about the direction of NASA and the cancellation of Constellation. It was interesting that most didn't think it would impact the long range goals and a few were happy that it was cancelled, especially Ares I.

One of the guys at my table was the artist Donovan who had the TV show Motor Art, where he made furniture out of aircraft parts. He was a great guy to chat with and he's nothing like they showed on TV.

I had a chance to chat with Bill Anders, I'm loaning him some stuff for his museum and he's always great to chat with.

During the event, Chuck Yeager spoke about his flying the X-1 with Ridley and Hoover being the reasons he was able to break the sound barrier. He also said that Bob Hoover was the greatest military aerobatics pilot of all time. If you've never seen Hoover's airshow demonstrations, check out YouTube, because it's truly the most amazing flying you've seen. I was very lucky to have seen Hoover fly in dozens of airshows during the 70's and 80's and I still don't know how he did the things he did.

Bob Hoover spoke about getting shot down in Germany during WW2, being taken prisoner and escaping multiple times by digging tunnels under the wire. Near the end of the war, Bob said he could hear Russian guns in the distance, since the Germans were retreating, he took another chance to escape with a fellow American. They eluded German patrols, when they came upon a mostly abandoned airfield, they found a BF-190, but didn't know how to start it. It had fuel, a few bullet holes in it, but nothing that prevented the plane from flying, so when a German soldier came by, Hoover and his buddy forced the German to start the plane for them. He said instead of going to the taxi way, he gunned the airplane and took off straight over the control tower, scaring the crap out of the Germans.

Hoover said he was more scared of flying a 190 to England, than he was when he was shot down. He flew north till he hit the ocean, then turned left and made a crash landing in Holland, after making sure he landed in friendly territory. Unfortunately when he landed, the Dutch civilians thought he was a downed German pilot and they wanted to kill him with their pitchforks. As a British truck was passing, he screamed in English to stop and take him back to their base.

The other great story Yeager told about Bob during their test pilot days at Muroc. Bob was testing the F-100 in a flat spin recovery test, with Yeager flying chase. Yeager told how there were JATO bottles on the front and backs of each wingtip, so a plane in a flat spin, could fire the bottles on opposite sides and stop the spinning.

Apparently on this flight, the engineers had rigged up the bottles backwards and when Hoover intentionally went into a flat spin, he fired the JATOs. Instead of slowing the spin, they tripled the spin rate.

Yeager said that the F-100 looked like a Chinese pinwheel with fireworks shooting out from the wings and was soon shrouded in smoke. At 15,000 feet, Yeager told Hoover, "maybe you oughta think about leaving that airplane" and Hoover ejected out, shooting out of the top of this smoking pinwheel, just like another firework display.

Neil Armstrong was as gracious as always. When talking with him, I asked about the famous "Mickey" signed photo he signed, after receiving a six page letter from some guy. I asked him how he came to sign "Mickey" and he just gave me a big sideways smile and said, "I don't know what you're talking about." I told him it was the funniest thing many of us had seen and it was classic.

I asked him why he didn't sign even for his favorite charities, because obviously he could raise a lot of money for things near and dear to his heart. He told me that he had been offered huge money for fund raising, but that he will just not sign. I also told him how all of the hardcore collectors were so happy that he didn't sign for Pelosi and he just smiled, but didn't say anything.

Buzz Aldrin was in a great mood and we talked for 15 minutes about the next step in space exploration. Bob Gilliland, who is the test pilot for the SR-71, as well as many other programs, is one of the greatest people to talk with. He gives talks all over the country and if you can, make a point of going to his presentation.

As I'm at this event and looking at everyone in their 80's, the era of these heroes is coming to an end. I'm so fortunate to have been able to meet these true heroes of history and when these great men pass on, there is nobody to replace them.