Bob Hoover

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Bob Hoover (2011)
Lithograph by Bob Hoover

Robert A. "Bob" Hoover (born January 24, 1922 in Nashville , Tennessee , † October 25, 2016 in Los Angeles ) was an American test pilot and aerobatic pilot . He is considered to be a pioneer of modern aerobatics and is called by pilots as one of the best pilots who have ever lived (“ one of the greatest pilots ever to have lived ”).

Life

Pilot training

Hoover learned to fly at the age of 16 at Hampton Field Airfield, Nashville's first airport in Tennessee . He financed his flight lessons by working in a grocery store. He then joined the Tennessee National Guard and was sent to the US Army for pilot training .

Second World War

During World War II , Hoover was first used for pilot training in England, but was then stationed in Casablanca , where he carried out test flights for assembled and repaired aircraft before they were put into service. At his urging, he was transferred to the 52nd Fighter Group in Sicily , where he flew the Spitfire (Mark V) in combat. On February 9, 1944, he was shot down and captured by Siegfried Lemke in a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 on the French south coast during his 59th mission . He spent 16 months in Stalag Luft 1 in Barth , a special prisoner-of-war camp for Allied pilots. Shortly before the end of the war, Hoover succeeded in breaking out of the stalag and stealing an Fw 190 from an unguarded hangar at an airfield and flying it to the already liberated Netherlands , where after landing he was pursued by angry farmers with pitchforks because of his plane wore German badges.

Career as a test pilot

After the end of the war he was used as a test pilot at the Wright Field Air Force Base in Ohio , where he tested Lockheed P-80s , among other things . Hoover met Chuck Yeager there, who was also a test pilot there, and they became friends. Together they were later transferred to Muroc Army Air Field , where they were included in the test program of the Bell X-1 . With this aircraft, Yeager was the first to break the sound barrier in level flight on October 14, 1947 ; the chase plane , a P-80, was controlled by Hoover.

According to the Air Force

Hoover left the Air Force in 1948, worked briefly for the Allison Engine Company before joining North American Aviation as a test pilot . During the Korean War , he taught US Air Force fighter pilots how to drop bombs while diving a North American F-86 . These drops also took place over enemy territory, but he was prohibited from participating in aerial battles. During the 1950s, he conducted flight tests on the North American FJ , F-86 Saber and the North American F-100 . He was also often used as a demonstration pilot to demonstrate the capabilities of these types of aircraft to the pilots of the Air Force. After North American Aviation merged with the Rockwell-Standard company to form North American Rockwell in 1967 (from 1973: Rockwell International ), Hoover began to demonstrate the North American P-51 "Mustang" at air shows.

Hoovers Shrike Commander in the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (2004)

He established his later legendary reputation as an aerobatic pilot with an aerobatic program in an Aero Commander 500 , a light twin-engine shoulder - wing aircraft designed for five people. In the Aero Commander, which was conceived as a business aircraft and appeared rather bulky, Hoover flew various flight maneuvers , including loops , controlled rolls or barrel rolls , sometimes with one or two stationary engines. A video recording is known in which Hoover flies a barrel roll in a T-39 and pours iced tea into a glass with one hand.

End of career

After he had engine problems when landing a North American T-28 in 1992, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took this as an opportunity to question his fitness to fly. Hoover therefore carried out an extensive medical medical examination to regain his license. The conflict with the FAA dragged on for two and a half years, while the Hoover flew overseas with an Australian license. The proceedings also extended to the NTSB supervisory authority and most recently went to court. Finally, in 1995, the FAA issued him a new medical certificate. The process was so well known that James Inhofe , Senator from Oklahoma and even AOPA -member, the so-called "Hoover Bill" earned, was allowed in the pilot, a decision on the license revocation ( "emergency certificate revocation") immediately of the NTSB to challenge .

In 1999, Hoover finally gave up aerobatics completely. His Shrike Commander is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Dulles .

Private

Hoover was married, his wife Colleen died in March 2016. The two had two children.

honors and awards

Hoover has received a variety of honors and awards over the course of his life, including the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross . The US Air Force Test Pilot School awarded him an honorary doctorate . Among other things, he was an honorary member of the Blue Angels and other aerobatic teams.

literature

  • Hoover, Bob; Shaw, Mark: Forever Flying: Fifty Years of High-Flying Adventures, from Barnstorming in Prop Planes to Dogfighting Germans to Testing Supersonic Jets . Atria Books, 1997, ISBN 0-671-53761-X (English).

Web links

Commons : Bob Hoover  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Thomas B. Haines: Aviation Legend Bob Hoover dies at 94th AOPA , October 27, 2016, accessed October 28, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Craig H. Mellow: Bob Hoover, Aviator Whose Aerobatic Stunts Are Legend, Dies at 94th New York Times , October 26, 2016, accessed October 28, 2016 .
  3. ↑ "51 Heroes of Aviation." Flying .
  4. ↑ Hoover, Forever Flying, 1997, pp. 15-16.
  5. ↑ Hoover 1997, p. 17.
  6. ↑ Hoover 1997, p. 37
  7. ↑ Hoover 1997, pp. 65-67.
  8. ↑ Hoover 1997, p. 90.
  9. ↑ Hoover 1997, pp. 88-90.
  10. ↑ Hoover 1997, p. 110
  11. ↑ Hoover 1997, p. 137
  12. ↑ Hoover 1997, pp. 187-189
  13. ↑ The video of the barrel roll on YouTube
  14. ↑ Jon L. Jordan MD, JD: The Federal Air Surgeon's Column: Bob Hoover, the facts. Federal Aviation Administration , June 4, 2012, accessed October 28, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Hoover 1997, pp. 281-283
  16. ↑ That's Dr. Hoover to You. Air & Space / Smithsonian, Volume 25, Issue 7, p. 11. ( ISSN  0886-2257 )
  17. ↑ Hoover, Robert "Bob". National Aviation Hall of Fame , accessed November 16, 2016 : "Enshrined 1988"
  18. ^ "Robert A." Bob "Hoover and Hale, STS-121 Shuttle Team are Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Trophy Winners. (No longer available online.) Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Mar 7, 2007, archived from the original ; accessed on October 28, 2016 .
  19. ^ Trophies and Awards at the National Air and Space Museum. (No longer available online.) Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, archived from the original on April 25, 2013 ; accessed on March 1, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / airandspace.si.edu
personal data
SURNAME Hoover, Bob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoover, Robert Anderson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American test pilot and stunt pilot
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Nashville , Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 2016
Place of death los Angeles