I got to see Bob Hoover fly his Shrike Commander at Oshkosh. What an amazing sight. Never got to meet Gen. Yeager, but always admired his West Virginia roots and "call it like it is" approach.
One of my favorite stories about Bob Hoover was the fact he escaped as a POW, held a German Aircraft Mechanic at gunpoint, forced him to help him start up a Focke Wulf 190 and stole one of Germany's most advanced multi-role fighter aircraft at the time and their most advanced propeller based fighter prior to the introduction of the ME262 jet. Hoover flew unarmed in the enemy aircraft staying in the cloud level so he wasn't as conspicuous as to not get shot down by the Allies, made it to Holland and crashed landed the aircraft on a farm field. Hoover went down in history as one of the very few pilots in history to steal an enemy combat aircraft and make their escape from captivity. While Hoover wasn't as well known to the world as Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager, Jimmy Doolittle, Neal Armstrong, etc. (although he did know all of them personally), he was very well known inside the aviation community as one of the greatest pilots who ever lived inspiring thousands of pilots over the years with his incredible performances as well as his gentlemanly character.
At the dinner late in the '76 fly-in just after the XP-51 was delivered (escorted by Jimmy Leeward in Cloud Dancer)... Alot of great pilots were there -it'd be a long list!
Legendary pilots!
Saw Chuck several times at Oshkosh, got to meet Bob at Sun-&fun. Great gentleman. Absolutely 1 of a kind!
Two of the greats no doubt!
I got to see Bob Hoover fly his Shrike Commander at Oshkosh. What an amazing sight.
Never got to meet Gen. Yeager, but always admired his West Virginia roots and "call it like it is" approach.
One of my favorite stories about Bob Hoover was the fact he escaped as a POW, held a German Aircraft Mechanic at gunpoint, forced him to help him start up a Focke Wulf 190 and stole one of Germany's most advanced multi-role fighter aircraft at the time and their most advanced propeller based fighter prior to the introduction of the ME262 jet. Hoover flew unarmed in the enemy aircraft staying in the cloud level so he wasn't as conspicuous as to not get shot down by the Allies, made it to Holland and crashed landed the aircraft on a farm field. Hoover went down in history as one of the very few pilots in history to steal an enemy combat aircraft and make their escape from captivity. While Hoover wasn't as well known to the world as Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager, Jimmy Doolittle, Neal Armstrong, etc. (although he did know all of them personally), he was very well known inside the aviation community as one of the greatest pilots who ever lived inspiring thousands of pilots over the years with his incredible performances as well as his gentlemanly character.
God bless you both ......... R.I.P.
Great story tellers those two!
God bless these men
This is great. Wat year was this video shot?
At the dinner late in the '76 fly-in just after the XP-51 was delivered (escorted by Jimmy Leeward in Cloud Dancer)... Alot of great pilots were there -it'd be a long list!
Do You Think These Two Guy Liked Each Other,, Or What,,,,-----> Two Peas In a Pod,,,,