MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
The attached picture is that of a B-26 extensively modified to teach USAF flight test pilots and flight test engineers. The man standing in front of the airplane is Lt Col Don Stiver, US Army. Don was drafted into Army in the 1960's, became an officer and flew OH-58 and AH-1's in Vietnam. He went on to attend the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB as an Army pilot. Don said that B-26 could be programmed to fly like virtually anything and that they flew 6 hours in that airplane, starting with a simulation of the Wright flyer and ending with a simulation of Space Shuttle.
Don Stiver retired from the US Army and went to work for private industry for a number of years. He flew from our airport and owned Starduster biplane and then built a spectacularly beautiful RV-8 homebuilt. Don died on 31 March 2019, following a long battle with cancer.
The B-26 shown in the photograph crashed in March 1981; three crewmembers were on board and there were no survivors. The cause was a manufacturing defect in the wing spar that dated from the airplane's manufacture in WWII. The instructor that had taught Don Stiver to fly the airplane was killed, as was the first female flight test engineer student to be killed, Capt Carmen Ann Lucci, USAF. I knew Carmen; she and I worked at Los Angeles Air Force Station, her previous assignment.
Good friends, wonderful people, great Americans, now gone but not forgotten. Have a good Memorial Day.
Don Stiver retired from the US Army and went to work for private industry for a number of years. He flew from our airport and owned Starduster biplane and then built a spectacularly beautiful RV-8 homebuilt. Don died on 31 March 2019, following a long battle with cancer.
The B-26 shown in the photograph crashed in March 1981; three crewmembers were on board and there were no survivors. The cause was a manufacturing defect in the wing spar that dated from the airplane's manufacture in WWII. The instructor that had taught Don Stiver to fly the airplane was killed, as was the first female flight test engineer student to be killed, Capt Carmen Ann Lucci, USAF. I knew Carmen; she and I worked at Los Angeles Air Force Station, her previous assignment.
Good friends, wonderful people, great Americans, now gone but not forgotten. Have a good Memorial Day.
