FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
An old friend of mine passed away last week. Dick Lawyer was the former chief pilot at Tracor Flight Systems. A great guy, he was still flying high performance jet warbirds up until his death. Apparently he had a heart attack after returning from a Colorado hunting trip. He just turned 73.
Dick flew nearly 50 different types of aircraft from small single engine prop planes to supersonic jets. He lived to fly and soared through the air in the Lockheed T-33, F-104 Starfighter, North American T-6 Texan; F-86 Sabre, FJ-4 Fury, F-100 Super Sabre (all models) and T-39 Sabreliner; McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom and F-101 Voodoo; Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart; Republic F 105 Thunderchief; and the Martin B-57 Canberra.
He was a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, the USAF Fighter Weapons Instructors School and was a Fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
He was selected as astronaut December 11, 1965, on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory project, a classified military manned space station. When MOL project was canceled, he was serving as Deputy Commander, Operations, Tactical Air War Center, Eglin AFB, Florida. He was a qualified military pilot; and graduate of Aerospace Research Pilot School.
I understand he did a few tours in Viet Nam and was shot down on at least 2 occasions. I was also told he was forced to eject on 3 different occasions while working as a test pilot. He was one of the highest time F-4 pilots, I understand he had about 6,000 hours in F-4 alone!!!
Dick was doing part time work for a flight test company in Mojave up until his death. He was flying an F-100F.
The photo below was taken by my good friend Alan Redecki during a summer flight test program. That's Dick getting ready to launch during a morning sortie.
He will be buried at Arlingtion National Cemetary in Wash DC on Jan 5.
This is my tribute to a good friend and great pilot, may he rest in peace....
Dick flew nearly 50 different types of aircraft from small single engine prop planes to supersonic jets. He lived to fly and soared through the air in the Lockheed T-33, F-104 Starfighter, North American T-6 Texan; F-86 Sabre, FJ-4 Fury, F-100 Super Sabre (all models) and T-39 Sabreliner; McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom and F-101 Voodoo; Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart; Republic F 105 Thunderchief; and the Martin B-57 Canberra.
He was a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, the USAF Fighter Weapons Instructors School and was a Fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
He was selected as astronaut December 11, 1965, on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory project, a classified military manned space station. When MOL project was canceled, he was serving as Deputy Commander, Operations, Tactical Air War Center, Eglin AFB, Florida. He was a qualified military pilot; and graduate of Aerospace Research Pilot School.
I understand he did a few tours in Viet Nam and was shot down on at least 2 occasions. I was also told he was forced to eject on 3 different occasions while working as a test pilot. He was one of the highest time F-4 pilots, I understand he had about 6,000 hours in F-4 alone!!!
Dick was doing part time work for a flight test company in Mojave up until his death. He was flying an F-100F.
The photo below was taken by my good friend Alan Redecki during a summer flight test program. That's Dick getting ready to launch during a morning sortie.
He will be buried at Arlingtion National Cemetary in Wash DC on Jan 5.
This is my tribute to a good friend and great pilot, may he rest in peace....
