posted 06-29-2025 09:13 PM               

On a chill January evening in 1989, members of the Experimental Aircraft Association of Boston gathered for a special event.

At 7 p.m., the group's president introduced a guest speaker as a "master of the skies and space." The mystery man marched onto the stage, wearing a powder-blue NASA flight suit. Amateur pilots leaned forward in their chairs to take a closer look at U.S. Marine Capt. Robert J. Hunt, who was 27 and raffishly handsome, with a push-broom mustache. He arrived at the podium, his space patches shining brightly, and savored the applause.

Hunt launched into stories about his fantastic life as a U.S. Marine fighter pilot. He spoke of zooming off the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea in his F/A-18 jet fighter and showering Gaddafi's Libya with bombs. He described soaring above Earth aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, on top-secret missions for the Department of Defense. He even presented two blackened tiles that he said were scorched during his reentry. Two hours later, hands shot into the air with questions.

"Are you familiar with the DIANE system?"

"Digital Integrated Attack and Navigation Equipment?" he replied, before joking that there might be Russians in the audience.

One attendee wasn't convinced. "He didn't sound intellectual enough to be an astronaut," Joy Alexander, 22 at the time, told People Magazine. She found it strange that Hunt spoke in a thick New England accent and cursed like a guy who worked on a construction site, not NASA's $209 billion space shuttle program. "His attitude, which was rude, seemed all wrong to me," she added. Older members scolded her for questioning an American hero.

Louis Pascucci, the group's president, told the Associated Press (via The Boston Herald), "He sure impressed us. Hunt was one hell of an entertainer. We had a full house. He held us spellbound for two and a half hours."

When the evening was over, Hunt shook hands and scribbled autographs, leaving aviation buffs with the sense they had brushed shoulders with a legend.

But Hunt had never been to space. He didn't have a pilot's license, or even a driver's license. He was an imposter and, in less than a week, he would be in custody as news of his incredible scam made headlines all over America...