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Lieutenant General Wilhelm Mohr 
Lieutenant General Wilhelm Mohr, who has died aged 100, escaped from his native Norway following the German occupation to fly fighters with the RAF, rising to become the chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) and to hold senior Nato appointments.
When the Germans invaded Norway on April 9 1940, Mohr was the deputy commander of a reconnaissance squadron based near Trondheim. It was soon apparent that the airfield would become untenable. Skis were fitted to the aircraft and Mohr and his men headed to an army unit further south, where he took command of the squadron.
Mohr and his pilots flew reconnaissance sorties to identify German advances, but by the end of the month it was clear that south Norway would have to be surrendered. He headed for the west coast and his aircraft was attacked and damaged en route, but he reached the HQ for the remnants of the Norwegian Army Air Arm on a frozen lake. He met the commanding general of the Norwegian forces, who gave him permission to escape to Britain.
Mohr left the small port of Molde on May 2 with other Air Arm personnel, but their fishing boat was attacked and sunk. Undaunted, they commandeered another and headed for the Shetlands.
Wilhelm Mohr was born on June 27 1916 in Fana on the west coast of Norway, near the city of Bergen. In 1936 he joined the Norwegian Army Air Arm, training as a pilot. A year later he started his officer studies at the Norwegian army's Military Academy. He was selected to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but with war threatening he returned to flying duties.
Mohr soon demonstrated his courage and tenacity. In late 1938 an emergency call came through that a pregnant woman needed to be evacuated from a remote farm. Owing to the bad weather, overland travel was impossible, but Mohr flew his biplane to the area and with the woman sitting on his lap, he took off and she was safely taken to a hospital.
After reaching Britain, Mohr soon left for Canada. Following the escape to Britain of the Norwegian royal family and government, it was decided to set up a training base for Norwegian military personnel and a site near Toronto was chosen. Mohr was one of the first flying instructors and played a key role in establishing what became known as "Little Norway".
He returned to Britain in May 1941 and joined No 615 Squadron to gain combat experience on the Hurricane. He was soon made a flight commander and took part in attacks over northern France. He provided fighter escort to a force of heavy bombers on a daylight attack against German capital ships in Brest.
In January 1942 Mohr became a founder member of No 332 Squadron, the second Norwegian fighter squadron equipped with the Spitfire. After a brief spell as the deputy commander, he assumed command in April. Operating from RAF North Weald, just north of London, Mohr led his squadron in attacks over France. During one operation he was in combat with a Focke Wulf 190 when he was wounded in the face, but he continued to fly on operations.
On August 19, the two Norwegian Spitfire squadrons provided fighter support for the ill-fated raid on Dieppe. Mohr was involved in dogfights with Luftwaffe fighters and was wounded in the leg, but continued his patrol for a further 30 minutes; his squadron accounted for seven of the enemy. On landing he refused treatment until he had organised a further operation by his squadron. Shortly afterwards he was awarded the DFC for his actions over Dieppe.
In September, King Haakon VII of Norway and his family visited North Weald and Mohr, his foot in plaster, was presented with the Norwegian War Cross with Swords. A few weeks later he married his fiancée Jonna, who had served as a courier with the Norwegian Resistance but had been forced to flee to Sweden in late 1941. She worked there for a year as a secretary for the Norwegian Defence Attaché before leaving for Britain.
Mohr continued to fly on operations before being rested in April 1943. Six months later he joined No 132 (Norwegian) Wing. On the morning of D-Day he flew a patrol over the beachhead in his Spitfire. Within weeks Mohr and his wing moved to a makeshift airstrip in Normandy to provide close support for the Allied ground forces. Over the next few months the Norwegians moved eastwards to Belgium and the Netherlands, attacking lines of communication, trains and enemy formations. Two weeks after the German surrender he landed back in Norway.
For three years he was the aide-de-camp to King Haakon, and he played an important role in establishing the RNoAF. After a series of appointments in Norway he spent three years in Washington as his country's representative on Nato's Military Committee. In 1960 he was appointed chief of staff of the RNoAF and three years later became its commander-in-chief, a post he held for six years.
In 1969 he was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of Nato's Allied Forces Northern Europe and later was the director of the National Defence College in Oslo, before retiring in 1975. He was leader of the Norwegian Civil Aviation Accident Commission from 1977 to 1989.
A modest man, Mohr was reluctant to emphasise his own role in the Second World War or his service in the RNoAF. He retained a deep interest in air force doctrine, however, and contributed numerous articles to Norwegian military publications and lectured to air force cadets. He was often described as "the grand old man of the Air Force".
In October 2010, aged 94, he flew in a Vampire jet of the RNoAF's Historical Squadron, more than 50 years after his last flight in the fighter. Mohr was appointed a Commander of the Order of St Olav (Norway) and a Knight of the Order of Danneborg (Denmark). He was also awarded the Legion of Merit (USA).
Wilhelm Mohr, born June 27 1916, died September 26 2016
source: The Telegraph
Lieutenant General Wilhelm Mohr, who has died aged 100, escaped from his native Norway following the German occupation to fly fighters with the RAF, rising to become the chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) and to hold senior Nato appointments.
When the Germans invaded Norway on April 9 1940, Mohr was the deputy commander of a reconnaissance squadron based near Trondheim. It was soon apparent that the airfield would become untenable. Skis were fitted to the aircraft and Mohr and his men headed to an army unit further south, where he took command of the squadron.
Mohr and his pilots flew reconnaissance sorties to identify German advances, but by the end of the month it was clear that south Norway would have to be surrendered. He headed for the west coast and his aircraft was attacked and damaged en route, but he reached the HQ for the remnants of the Norwegian Army Air Arm on a frozen lake. He met the commanding general of the Norwegian forces, who gave him permission to escape to Britain.
Mohr left the small port of Molde on May 2 with other Air Arm personnel, but their fishing boat was attacked and sunk. Undaunted, they commandeered another and headed for the Shetlands.
Wilhelm Mohr was born on June 27 1916 in Fana on the west coast of Norway, near the city of Bergen. In 1936 he joined the Norwegian Army Air Arm, training as a pilot. A year later he started his officer studies at the Norwegian army's Military Academy. He was selected to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but with war threatening he returned to flying duties.
Mohr soon demonstrated his courage and tenacity. In late 1938 an emergency call came through that a pregnant woman needed to be evacuated from a remote farm. Owing to the bad weather, overland travel was impossible, but Mohr flew his biplane to the area and with the woman sitting on his lap, he took off and she was safely taken to a hospital.
After reaching Britain, Mohr soon left for Canada. Following the escape to Britain of the Norwegian royal family and government, it was decided to set up a training base for Norwegian military personnel and a site near Toronto was chosen. Mohr was one of the first flying instructors and played a key role in establishing what became known as "Little Norway".
He returned to Britain in May 1941 and joined No 615 Squadron to gain combat experience on the Hurricane. He was soon made a flight commander and took part in attacks over northern France. He provided fighter escort to a force of heavy bombers on a daylight attack against German capital ships in Brest.
In January 1942 Mohr became a founder member of No 332 Squadron, the second Norwegian fighter squadron equipped with the Spitfire. After a brief spell as the deputy commander, he assumed command in April. Operating from RAF North Weald, just north of London, Mohr led his squadron in attacks over France. During one operation he was in combat with a Focke Wulf 190 when he was wounded in the face, but he continued to fly on operations.
On August 19, the two Norwegian Spitfire squadrons provided fighter support for the ill-fated raid on Dieppe. Mohr was involved in dogfights with Luftwaffe fighters and was wounded in the leg, but continued his patrol for a further 30 minutes; his squadron accounted for seven of the enemy. On landing he refused treatment until he had organised a further operation by his squadron. Shortly afterwards he was awarded the DFC for his actions over Dieppe.
In September, King Haakon VII of Norway and his family visited North Weald and Mohr, his foot in plaster, was presented with the Norwegian War Cross with Swords. A few weeks later he married his fiancée Jonna, who had served as a courier with the Norwegian Resistance but had been forced to flee to Sweden in late 1941. She worked there for a year as a secretary for the Norwegian Defence Attaché before leaving for Britain.
Mohr continued to fly on operations before being rested in April 1943. Six months later he joined No 132 (Norwegian) Wing. On the morning of D-Day he flew a patrol over the beachhead in his Spitfire. Within weeks Mohr and his wing moved to a makeshift airstrip in Normandy to provide close support for the Allied ground forces. Over the next few months the Norwegians moved eastwards to Belgium and the Netherlands, attacking lines of communication, trains and enemy formations. Two weeks after the German surrender he landed back in Norway.
For three years he was the aide-de-camp to King Haakon, and he played an important role in establishing the RNoAF. After a series of appointments in Norway he spent three years in Washington as his country's representative on Nato's Military Committee. In 1960 he was appointed chief of staff of the RNoAF and three years later became its commander-in-chief, a post he held for six years.
In 1969 he was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of Nato's Allied Forces Northern Europe and later was the director of the National Defence College in Oslo, before retiring in 1975. He was leader of the Norwegian Civil Aviation Accident Commission from 1977 to 1989.
A modest man, Mohr was reluctant to emphasise his own role in the Second World War or his service in the RNoAF. He retained a deep interest in air force doctrine, however, and contributed numerous articles to Norwegian military publications and lectured to air force cadets. He was often described as "the grand old man of the Air Force".
In October 2010, aged 94, he flew in a Vampire jet of the RNoAF's Historical Squadron, more than 50 years after his last flight in the fighter. Mohr was appointed a Commander of the Order of St Olav (Norway) and a Knight of the Order of Danneborg (Denmark). He was also awarded the Legion of Merit (USA).
Wilhelm Mohr, born June 27 1916, died September 26 2016
source: The Telegraph
michaelmaltby
Colonel
Then and now .... 
Old Wizard
2nd Lieutenant
Ken Cranefield, pilot wounded dropping supply panniers into Arnhem
Ken Cranefield , who has died aged 94, dropped supplies to men of the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, despite having been severely wounded and for his courage he won a DFC.
Operation Market Garden, the capture of a series of key bridges in the Netherlands, began on September 17 1944. Cranefield was the pilot of one of 22 Dakota transport aircraft of No 233 Squadron that took off from an airfield near Swindon, each towing a Horsa glider carrying elements of the King's Own Scottish Borderers and the Border Regiment. Little opposition was encountered and all but one of the gliders arrived on Landing Zone "S". As the situation on the ground at Arnhem deteriorated, the re-supply of the beleaguered positions became critical. The RAF suffered increasing losses as the enemy reinforced its anti-aircraft capability.
On the morning of the 23rd, No 233 Squadron was given the task of dropping more supplies and 17 Dakotas took off. Cranefield was the pilot of one of them.
Approaching the dropping zone, the Dakotas met heavy resistance. Later Cranefield remembered that the anti-aircraft fire "sounded like peanuts raking the length of the fuselage". Then his wireless operator shouted over the intercom: "Skipper, the starboard wing is on fire."
A large hole had been torn in the wing, making it difficult to control, but Cranefield pressed on.
Close to the dropping zone, his Dakota was again hit and he was badly wounded in the knee and thigh. Refusing treatment he remained at the aircraft's controls and the panniers were dropped successfully.
Only then did he allow the second pilot, Flight Sergeant Stapleford RNZAF, to take control and fly the aircraft back to base. A member of his crew tended to his wounds, using the flex from a microphone as a tourniquet. In hospital Cranefield met an RAF nursing sister who would become his wife.
The citation for the award of an immediate DFC described him as "a courageous and resolute captain who set a very fine example".
His wounds were so serious that he was unable to return to flying duties.
Knivett Garton Cranefield, always known as Ken, was born in Ealing on May 2 1922. He enlisted into the RAF in February 1941. He trained as a pilot under a joint US/UK Training Scheme. He completed his training in Britain on the Wellington bomber and ferried one to North Africa. En route, his aircraft was intercepted by three long-range German fighters, but he managed to evade them.
His return to Britain coincided with the build-up of the RAF's transport force in preparation for the Allied landings in Normandy and he converted to the Dakota aircraft. In the period following the successful D-Day landings, Cranefield made numerous sorties to rudimentary airstrips in Normandy, transporting supplies and men. On one occasion his load included 2,000lbs of newspapers.
On the return trips, the empty Dakotas were loaded with wounded soldiers and flown back to hospitals in England. As the Allied armies advanced east, the Dakotas landed at recently captured German airfields and finally at Brussels, which became a major airhead.
After his final operation to Arnhem, Cranefield remained in hospital for many weeks and he had to receive treatment over the next 10 years. Unable to remain in the RAF, he left in September 1946 as a warrant officer and took up a career in the Civil Service. He rose to fill senior appointments in the Department of Employment.
In September 2014 he returned to Arnhem for the first time to attend a service marking the 70th anniversary of the battle. With other veterans he was warmly welcomed by the Dutch people, including many children from the town, who recognised his medals and came up to thank him.
Ken Cranefield died on the anniversary of his first sortie to Arnhem. He married Marjorie Douglas in 1945 and she died in July this year. Their two daughters survive him.
Ken Cranefield, born May 2 1922, died September 17 2016
source: The Telegraph
Ken Cranefield , who has died aged 94, dropped supplies to men of the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, despite having been severely wounded and for his courage he won a DFC.
Operation Market Garden, the capture of a series of key bridges in the Netherlands, began on September 17 1944. Cranefield was the pilot of one of 22 Dakota transport aircraft of No 233 Squadron that took off from an airfield near Swindon, each towing a Horsa glider carrying elements of the King's Own Scottish Borderers and the Border Regiment. Little opposition was encountered and all but one of the gliders arrived on Landing Zone "S". As the situation on the ground at Arnhem deteriorated, the re-supply of the beleaguered positions became critical. The RAF suffered increasing losses as the enemy reinforced its anti-aircraft capability.
On the morning of the 23rd, No 233 Squadron was given the task of dropping more supplies and 17 Dakotas took off. Cranefield was the pilot of one of them.
Approaching the dropping zone, the Dakotas met heavy resistance. Later Cranefield remembered that the anti-aircraft fire "sounded like peanuts raking the length of the fuselage". Then his wireless operator shouted over the intercom: "Skipper, the starboard wing is on fire."
A large hole had been torn in the wing, making it difficult to control, but Cranefield pressed on.
Close to the dropping zone, his Dakota was again hit and he was badly wounded in the knee and thigh. Refusing treatment he remained at the aircraft's controls and the panniers were dropped successfully.
Only then did he allow the second pilot, Flight Sergeant Stapleford RNZAF, to take control and fly the aircraft back to base. A member of his crew tended to his wounds, using the flex from a microphone as a tourniquet. In hospital Cranefield met an RAF nursing sister who would become his wife.
The citation for the award of an immediate DFC described him as "a courageous and resolute captain who set a very fine example".
His wounds were so serious that he was unable to return to flying duties.
Knivett Garton Cranefield, always known as Ken, was born in Ealing on May 2 1922. He enlisted into the RAF in February 1941. He trained as a pilot under a joint US/UK Training Scheme. He completed his training in Britain on the Wellington bomber and ferried one to North Africa. En route, his aircraft was intercepted by three long-range German fighters, but he managed to evade them.
His return to Britain coincided with the build-up of the RAF's transport force in preparation for the Allied landings in Normandy and he converted to the Dakota aircraft. In the period following the successful D-Day landings, Cranefield made numerous sorties to rudimentary airstrips in Normandy, transporting supplies and men. On one occasion his load included 2,000lbs of newspapers.
On the return trips, the empty Dakotas were loaded with wounded soldiers and flown back to hospitals in England. As the Allied armies advanced east, the Dakotas landed at recently captured German airfields and finally at Brussels, which became a major airhead.
After his final operation to Arnhem, Cranefield remained in hospital for many weeks and he had to receive treatment over the next 10 years. Unable to remain in the RAF, he left in September 1946 as a warrant officer and took up a career in the Civil Service. He rose to fill senior appointments in the Department of Employment.
In September 2014 he returned to Arnhem for the first time to attend a service marking the 70th anniversary of the battle. With other veterans he was warmly welcomed by the Dutch people, including many children from the town, who recognised his medals and came up to thank him.
Ken Cranefield died on the anniversary of his first sortie to Arnhem. He married Marjorie Douglas in 1945 and she died in July this year. Their two daughters survive him.
Ken Cranefield, born May 2 1922, died September 17 2016
source: The Telegraph
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
R.I.P.
fubar57
General
Old Wizard
2nd Lieutenant
Bob Hoover, Aviator Whose Aerobatic Stunts Are Legend, Dies at 94
Bob Hoover, a pilot who escaped Nazi captivity in a stolen plane, tested supersonic jets with his friend Chuck Yeager, barnstormed the world as a breathtaking stunt performer and became, by wide consensus, an American aviation legend, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 94.
His death was confirmed by Ron Kaplan of the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, where Mr. Hoover was enshrined in 1988.
Even General Yeager, perhaps the most famous test pilot of his generation, was humbled by Mr. Hoover, describing him in the foreword to Mr. Hoover's 1996 autobiography, "Forever Flying," as "the greatest pilot I ever saw."
The World War II hero Jimmy Doolittle, an aviation pioneer of an earlier generation, called Mr. Hoover "the greatest stick-and-rudder man that ever lived."
Tall and lanky, Mr. Hoover forged a long career studded with aeronautical achievements and feats of derring-do. The subtitle of his memoir, written with Mark Shaw, suggests as much: "Fifty Years of High-Flying Adventures, From Barnstorming in Prop Planes to Dogfighting Germans to Testing Supersonic Jets."
At a World War II air base in the Mediterranean, he wrote, he terrified senior pilots who had been lording it over him by flying a P-40 fighter under a bridge while they were standing on it. At an international aerobatic competition in Moscow in 1966, he put on a thrilling though unauthorized display, flying upside down and executing spectacular loops in a Yakovlev-18.
By his account, the stunt upset his Soviet hosts, and he escaped K.G.B. custody afterward only because of the intervention of a mildly inebriated Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. The two had struck up a friendship.
Indeed, Mr. Hoover could trace the history of aviation, to the dawn of the space age, by the men he came to know: Orville Wright and Charles Lindbergh, General Doolittle and the World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, and the astronauts Walter Schirra and Neil Armstrong as well as General Yeager and Colonel Gagarin.
Mr. Hoover's trademark maneuver on the show circuit was a death-defying plunge with both engines cut off; he would use the hurtling momentum to pull the plane up into a loop at the last possible moment.
But his stunts were not foolhardy. Each involved painstaking preparation and rational calculation of risk. "A great many former friends of mine are no longer with us simply because they cut their margins too close," he once said.
Mr. Kaplan, of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, said of Mr. Hoover, "You do not survive the life he lived without discipline and caution."
His favorite plane in the 1950s and '60s was "Old Yeller," a P-51 Mustang fighter painted bright yellow. Mr. Hoover sometimes shunned flight suits to perform in a business suit (less trouble for the undertaker in case of an accident, he once said) and a trademark Panama straw hat.
He once invited a crew from the ABC program "That's Incredible!" to film him in action, pouring a glass of iced tea with one hand while he rolled his plane 360 degrees with the other.
Robert Anderson Hoover was born on Jan. 24, 1922, in Nashville. His father, Leroy, worked for a paper company while his mother, Bessie, kept house. Bob started to fly as a teenager, "working 16 hours in a grocery store to earn 15 minutes of flight time," as he told an audience of young admirers.
He soon taught himself the loops and hand rolls of aerobatics, enlisted in the Tennessee National Guard and received orders to Army Pilot Training School.
With the onset of World War II, he was sent to England as a flight instructor for the Royal Air Force. The Army Air Forces later assigned him to Casablanca, Morocco, where he tested newly assembled and repaired planes and ferried them to the front. Valued as an operations officer, he was nevertheless hungry to fight and, through persistence, persuaded his commanders to grant him combat duty.
"I can hit a target upside down or right side up," he said he told a general.
As a pilot with the 52nd Fighter Group, based in Corsica, Mr. Hoover, a lieutenant, flew 58 successful missions before his Spitfire fighter was shot down by the Luftwaffe in February 1944. He spent 16 months in Stalag Luft I, a prisoner of war camp in Germany reserved for Allied pilots.
Mr. Hoover and a friend escaped from the camp in the chaotic final days of the war, according to his memoir. Commandeering an aircraft from a deserted Nazi base, he flew it to freedom in the newly liberated Netherlands, only to be chased by pitchfork-wielding Dutch farmers enraged by the plane's German markings.
He remained in the military after the war as a test pilot based at Wright Field in Ohio (now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base). There, with jet-propulsion planes replacing propeller aircraft, he took on the dangerous duty of working out kinks in workhorses like the F-80 and P-51 fighters.
Mr. Yeager was also a test pilot there, and in the fall of 1945 they became friends after getting into a spontaneous mock dogfight that ended in a draw. They were soon performing in air shows around the country.
Both men were recruited to train together at Muroc Field (later named Edwards Air Force Base) in California to fly the Bell Aircraft X-1, the rocket plane that broke the sound barrier in October 1947 over the Mojave Desert.
Mr. Hoover might well have gotten the call to pilot the plane if his rambunctious streak had not undone him, Mr. Kaplan said. Earlier that year, he had buzzed a civilian airport in Springfield, Ohio, in an experimental military jet as a favor to a friend; the friend wanted his relatives in the area to think that he was flying the aircraft.
Commanders discovered the episode, and Mr. Hoover was relegated to flying the "chase" plane during the X-1 test flights, making observations and taking photographs, while Mr. Yeager made history.
After leaving the Air Force (the successor to the Army Air Forces), Mr. Hoover became a test pilot for General Motors and then North American Aviation, a Los Angeles-based military contractor that later merged with Rockwell International.
He stayed with the company through the 1980s. But as the pace of jet innovation slowed, he became a roving ambassador and showman, flying North American planes at air shows around the world and taking part in a documentary film, "Flying the Feathered Edge: The Bob Hoover Project."
Mr. Hoover was one of the most honored pilots in American history. His military awards alone include the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Soldier's Medal of Valor, the Air Medal with Clusters, the Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre. In 2007 he received the National Air and Space Museum Trophy, the museum's highest honor.
Mr. Hoover's wife, Colleen, died recently. They had lived for many years in the Los Angeles area. Survivors include a son, a daughter and several grandchildren.
Mr. Hoover flew well into his 80s, but not before clashing with the authorities when he was 72, in 1994, when medical examiners from the Federal Aviation Administration declared him unfit to fly, saying that his "cognitive abilities" had diminished.
Mr. Hoover quickly recertified himself in Australia and began a legal battle back home, led by the defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who had befriended Mr. Hoover through a mutual love for flying helicopters.
Mr. Hoover emerged victorious 18 months later, and his United States license was restored. His campaign found support among fans who wrote thousands of letters. At the Oshkosh Fly-In and Air Show in Wisconsin, posters were displayed everywhere saying, "Let Bob Fly."
Bob Hoover, a pilot who escaped Nazi captivity in a stolen plane, tested supersonic jets with his friend Chuck Yeager, barnstormed the world as a breathtaking stunt performer and became, by wide consensus, an American aviation legend, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 94.
His death was confirmed by Ron Kaplan of the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, where Mr. Hoover was enshrined in 1988.
Even General Yeager, perhaps the most famous test pilot of his generation, was humbled by Mr. Hoover, describing him in the foreword to Mr. Hoover's 1996 autobiography, "Forever Flying," as "the greatest pilot I ever saw."
The World War II hero Jimmy Doolittle, an aviation pioneer of an earlier generation, called Mr. Hoover "the greatest stick-and-rudder man that ever lived."
Tall and lanky, Mr. Hoover forged a long career studded with aeronautical achievements and feats of derring-do. The subtitle of his memoir, written with Mark Shaw, suggests as much: "Fifty Years of High-Flying Adventures, From Barnstorming in Prop Planes to Dogfighting Germans to Testing Supersonic Jets."
At a World War II air base in the Mediterranean, he wrote, he terrified senior pilots who had been lording it over him by flying a P-40 fighter under a bridge while they were standing on it. At an international aerobatic competition in Moscow in 1966, he put on a thrilling though unauthorized display, flying upside down and executing spectacular loops in a Yakovlev-18.
By his account, the stunt upset his Soviet hosts, and he escaped K.G.B. custody afterward only because of the intervention of a mildly inebriated Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. The two had struck up a friendship.
Indeed, Mr. Hoover could trace the history of aviation, to the dawn of the space age, by the men he came to know: Orville Wright and Charles Lindbergh, General Doolittle and the World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, and the astronauts Walter Schirra and Neil Armstrong as well as General Yeager and Colonel Gagarin.
Mr. Hoover's trademark maneuver on the show circuit was a death-defying plunge with both engines cut off; he would use the hurtling momentum to pull the plane up into a loop at the last possible moment.
But his stunts were not foolhardy. Each involved painstaking preparation and rational calculation of risk. "A great many former friends of mine are no longer with us simply because they cut their margins too close," he once said.
Mr. Kaplan, of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, said of Mr. Hoover, "You do not survive the life he lived without discipline and caution."
His favorite plane in the 1950s and '60s was "Old Yeller," a P-51 Mustang fighter painted bright yellow. Mr. Hoover sometimes shunned flight suits to perform in a business suit (less trouble for the undertaker in case of an accident, he once said) and a trademark Panama straw hat.
He once invited a crew from the ABC program "That's Incredible!" to film him in action, pouring a glass of iced tea with one hand while he rolled his plane 360 degrees with the other.
Robert Anderson Hoover was born on Jan. 24, 1922, in Nashville. His father, Leroy, worked for a paper company while his mother, Bessie, kept house. Bob started to fly as a teenager, "working 16 hours in a grocery store to earn 15 minutes of flight time," as he told an audience of young admirers.
He soon taught himself the loops and hand rolls of aerobatics, enlisted in the Tennessee National Guard and received orders to Army Pilot Training School.
With the onset of World War II, he was sent to England as a flight instructor for the Royal Air Force. The Army Air Forces later assigned him to Casablanca, Morocco, where he tested newly assembled and repaired planes and ferried them to the front. Valued as an operations officer, he was nevertheless hungry to fight and, through persistence, persuaded his commanders to grant him combat duty.
"I can hit a target upside down or right side up," he said he told a general.
As a pilot with the 52nd Fighter Group, based in Corsica, Mr. Hoover, a lieutenant, flew 58 successful missions before his Spitfire fighter was shot down by the Luftwaffe in February 1944. He spent 16 months in Stalag Luft I, a prisoner of war camp in Germany reserved for Allied pilots.
Mr. Hoover and a friend escaped from the camp in the chaotic final days of the war, according to his memoir. Commandeering an aircraft from a deserted Nazi base, he flew it to freedom in the newly liberated Netherlands, only to be chased by pitchfork-wielding Dutch farmers enraged by the plane's German markings.
He remained in the military after the war as a test pilot based at Wright Field in Ohio (now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base). There, with jet-propulsion planes replacing propeller aircraft, he took on the dangerous duty of working out kinks in workhorses like the F-80 and P-51 fighters.
Mr. Yeager was also a test pilot there, and in the fall of 1945 they became friends after getting into a spontaneous mock dogfight that ended in a draw. They were soon performing in air shows around the country.
Both men were recruited to train together at Muroc Field (later named Edwards Air Force Base) in California to fly the Bell Aircraft X-1, the rocket plane that broke the sound barrier in October 1947 over the Mojave Desert.
Mr. Hoover might well have gotten the call to pilot the plane if his rambunctious streak had not undone him, Mr. Kaplan said. Earlier that year, he had buzzed a civilian airport in Springfield, Ohio, in an experimental military jet as a favor to a friend; the friend wanted his relatives in the area to think that he was flying the aircraft.
Commanders discovered the episode, and Mr. Hoover was relegated to flying the "chase" plane during the X-1 test flights, making observations and taking photographs, while Mr. Yeager made history.
After leaving the Air Force (the successor to the Army Air Forces), Mr. Hoover became a test pilot for General Motors and then North American Aviation, a Los Angeles-based military contractor that later merged with Rockwell International.
He stayed with the company through the 1980s. But as the pace of jet innovation slowed, he became a roving ambassador and showman, flying North American planes at air shows around the world and taking part in a documentary film, "Flying the Feathered Edge: The Bob Hoover Project."
Mr. Hoover was one of the most honored pilots in American history. His military awards alone include the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Soldier's Medal of Valor, the Air Medal with Clusters, the Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre. In 2007 he received the National Air and Space Museum Trophy, the museum's highest honor.
Mr. Hoover's wife, Colleen, died recently. They had lived for many years in the Los Angeles area. Survivors include a son, a daughter and several grandchildren.
Mr. Hoover flew well into his 80s, but not before clashing with the authorities when he was 72, in 1994, when medical examiners from the Federal Aviation Administration declared him unfit to fly, saying that his "cognitive abilities" had diminished.
Mr. Hoover quickly recertified himself in Australia and began a legal battle back home, led by the defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who had befriended Mr. Hoover through a mutual love for flying helicopters.
Mr. Hoover emerged victorious 18 months later, and his United States license was restored. His campaign found support among fans who wrote thousands of letters. At the Oshkosh Fly-In and Air Show in Wisconsin, posters were displayed everywhere saying, "Let Bob Fly."
Molly Rose, Spitfire pilot.
Molly Rose, who has died aged 95, was a pilot in the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary and became one of the "Spitfire Women" when she delivered 273 of the fighters from aircraft factories to RAF units.
Already a qualified pilot, she joined the ATA in September 1942, flying light aircraft such as the Tiger Moth before advancing to more powerful single-engine aircraft. As she became more experienced, she started flying the Hurricane fighter and then the Spitfire ("a thrilling moment"). For much of her service she flew from Hamble airfield, an all-female unit near Southampton.
On some days she flew three or four different types of aircraft. Before flying a new type the pilots read aircraft notes and used a detailed checklist before starting up. They flew without radios, and many airfields were camouflaged and difficult to find.
She also delivered twin-engine aircraft such as the Anson and the Hudson, before she started flying the Wellington bomber, and she mastered the Beaufighter and Mosquito, aircraft which many pilots found a handful. As the war progressed she transferred to the more advanced Spitfire variants, the Typhoon and the powerful Tempest fighter-bomber.
While at Hamble she saw the forces assembling for the forthcoming invasion of Europe in June 1944. Her husband Bernard, a captain in the 4th City of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), was embarked in a tank landing craft and a week later it was reported that he had been killed in action. But she continued with her flying duties and six weeks later learnt that he had survived and was a PoW.
That was her busiest year and during it she delivered 253 aircraft. She added a further 94 the following year, which included the Mustang, before leaving the ATA in May 1945 as a first officer. Altogether she delivered 486 aircraft and flew 38 different types. She never flew again as a pilot. The daughter of David Marshall, the founder of Marshall Aviation of Cambridge, Molly was born on November 26 1920 and educated at a school near Cambridge before spending a year at a finishing school in Paris. In 1937 she joined the family business as an apprentice engineer. Her older brother kept a Tiger Moth in a field behind the family home and she persuaded him to teach her to fly. She gained her pilot's licence aged 17; the same year she got her driving licence, and in 1939 she married Bernard Rose.
In 1942, just after her husband had left for North Africa with his regiment, she received a call inviting her to join the ATA. She travelled to London in her new uniform to have a photograph taken and sent a copy to her husband with a note: "I hope you don't mind darling, I've just joined up!"
After training she was based at Luton before moving to the ferry pool at White Waltham and then, in September 1943, to Hamble.
Post-war she settled in Oxford where her husband became a lecturer in music at Queen's College; he was later appointed Informator Choristarum and fellow in music at Magdalen.
Molly Rose sat as a magistrate for the Bullingdon circuit and was later the chairman of the bench. She was a dedicated charity fund-raiser and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire in 1983, and, in 1990, OBE. She was for many years a parish councillor for Appleton-with-Eaton. Molly Rose was a generous hostess and many music scholars and choristers enjoyed tea and dinner parties at their home. After the death of her husband in 1996 she continued to lead a busy social life and on September 11 this year former musical protégés were invited to celebrate what would have been her husband's 100th birthday. After lunch and a tea, a concert of Bernard Rose's music, conducted by one of their sons, was performed to a full St Mary's Church, Bampton.
In 2008 the service of the "Forgotten Pilots" of the ATA was finally formally recognised and Molly attended a ceremony at 10 Downing Street, where the prime minister, Gordon Brown, presented her and other survivors with the ATA Veteran's Badge.
In 2014 she was one of the veteran guest judges at The Great British Menu: the D-Day Banquet on BBC television.
She is survived by her three sons.
Molly Rose, born November 26 1920, died October 16 2016
source: The Telegraph
Molly Rose, who has died aged 95, was a pilot in the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary and became one of the "Spitfire Women" when she delivered 273 of the fighters from aircraft factories to RAF units.
Already a qualified pilot, she joined the ATA in September 1942, flying light aircraft such as the Tiger Moth before advancing to more powerful single-engine aircraft. As she became more experienced, she started flying the Hurricane fighter and then the Spitfire ("a thrilling moment"). For much of her service she flew from Hamble airfield, an all-female unit near Southampton.
On some days she flew three or four different types of aircraft. Before flying a new type the pilots read aircraft notes and used a detailed checklist before starting up. They flew without radios, and many airfields were camouflaged and difficult to find.
She also delivered twin-engine aircraft such as the Anson and the Hudson, before she started flying the Wellington bomber, and she mastered the Beaufighter and Mosquito, aircraft which many pilots found a handful. As the war progressed she transferred to the more advanced Spitfire variants, the Typhoon and the powerful Tempest fighter-bomber.
While at Hamble she saw the forces assembling for the forthcoming invasion of Europe in June 1944. Her husband Bernard, a captain in the 4th City of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), was embarked in a tank landing craft and a week later it was reported that he had been killed in action. But she continued with her flying duties and six weeks later learnt that he had survived and was a PoW.
That was her busiest year and during it she delivered 253 aircraft. She added a further 94 the following year, which included the Mustang, before leaving the ATA in May 1945 as a first officer. Altogether she delivered 486 aircraft and flew 38 different types. She never flew again as a pilot. The daughter of David Marshall, the founder of Marshall Aviation of Cambridge, Molly was born on November 26 1920 and educated at a school near Cambridge before spending a year at a finishing school in Paris. In 1937 she joined the family business as an apprentice engineer. Her older brother kept a Tiger Moth in a field behind the family home and she persuaded him to teach her to fly. She gained her pilot's licence aged 17; the same year she got her driving licence, and in 1939 she married Bernard Rose.
In 1942, just after her husband had left for North Africa with his regiment, she received a call inviting her to join the ATA. She travelled to London in her new uniform to have a photograph taken and sent a copy to her husband with a note: "I hope you don't mind darling, I've just joined up!"
After training she was based at Luton before moving to the ferry pool at White Waltham and then, in September 1943, to Hamble.
Post-war she settled in Oxford where her husband became a lecturer in music at Queen's College; he was later appointed Informator Choristarum and fellow in music at Magdalen.
Molly Rose sat as a magistrate for the Bullingdon circuit and was later the chairman of the bench. She was a dedicated charity fund-raiser and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire in 1983, and, in 1990, OBE. She was for many years a parish councillor for Appleton-with-Eaton. Molly Rose was a generous hostess and many music scholars and choristers enjoyed tea and dinner parties at their home. After the death of her husband in 1996 she continued to lead a busy social life and on September 11 this year former musical protégés were invited to celebrate what would have been her husband's 100th birthday. After lunch and a tea, a concert of Bernard Rose's music, conducted by one of their sons, was performed to a full St Mary's Church, Bampton.
In 2008 the service of the "Forgotten Pilots" of the ATA was finally formally recognised and Molly attended a ceremony at 10 Downing Street, where the prime minister, Gordon Brown, presented her and other survivors with the ATA Veteran's Badge.
In 2014 she was one of the veteran guest judges at The Great British Menu: the D-Day Banquet on BBC television.
She is survived by her three sons.
Molly Rose, born November 26 1920, died October 16 2016
source: The Telegraph
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
R.I.P.
Old Wizard
2nd Lieutenant
They don't make many like that any more.
Tuskegee Airman James B. Williams dies at age 97
One of the famed Tuskegee Airmen who supported the Allied victory in World War II, New Mexico native Dr. James B. Williams, died Wednesday at age 97. Williams was one of the few remaining survivors who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces program that trained African-Americans for the war effort – a pioneering group that would play a key role in the desegregation of the military.
Before 1940, African-Americans were barred from flying for the U.S. military, according to Tuskegee Airmen Inc., a national organization with chapters in New Mexico that supports the airmen's legacy. Civil rights groups lobbied against that ban, leading to the formation of an all-African-American pursuit squadron based in Tuskegee, Ala., in 1941. From 1942 through 1946, 994 pilots received their wings at Tuskegee.
Born to Jasper and Clara Belle Williams – the first black woman to graduate from what is now New Mexico State University – Williams was studying medicine when he joined the military in 1942.
He was selected to attend the Medical Administrative Officers Candidate School at Camp Pickett, Va., but he wanted to become a pilot and asked for transfer to the Army Air Forces, according to TheHistoryMakers.com, an online collection of African-American oral histories.
He received basic training as an aviation cadet at Boca Raton Club, Fla., and technical training at Yale University, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Forces. Williams served as an engineering officer in the 99th Fighter Squadron. He did not see combat. In 1942, Williams was among the more than 100 black officers who tried to integrate a whites-only officers' club at Freeman Field in Indiana. They were arrested, but all were eventually exonerated and their military records cleared.
The incident became a bellwether for the end of segregation in the military in 1945.
Williams' daughter Brenda Payton Jones recalled hearing the story about Freeman Field and feeling "just so incredibly proud."
Williams told his superiors: "If I can't go into the officers' club, then I shouldn't be an officer," Payton Jones said. "That was the way we heard it growing up. "When I thought of a young man, 21, standing up on his own for what he knew was right … ."
After his military service, Williams obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry from NMSU and earned his M.D. from Creighton University School of Medicine. He founded the Williams Medical Clinic in Chicago with two brothers, practiced as a general surgeon and eventually retired in Las Cruces.
In 2007, Williams and other Tuskegee Airmen won the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.
source: Stars and Stripes
One of the famed Tuskegee Airmen who supported the Allied victory in World War II, New Mexico native Dr. James B. Williams, died Wednesday at age 97. Williams was one of the few remaining survivors who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces program that trained African-Americans for the war effort – a pioneering group that would play a key role in the desegregation of the military.
Before 1940, African-Americans were barred from flying for the U.S. military, according to Tuskegee Airmen Inc., a national organization with chapters in New Mexico that supports the airmen's legacy. Civil rights groups lobbied against that ban, leading to the formation of an all-African-American pursuit squadron based in Tuskegee, Ala., in 1941. From 1942 through 1946, 994 pilots received their wings at Tuskegee.
Born to Jasper and Clara Belle Williams – the first black woman to graduate from what is now New Mexico State University – Williams was studying medicine when he joined the military in 1942.
He was selected to attend the Medical Administrative Officers Candidate School at Camp Pickett, Va., but he wanted to become a pilot and asked for transfer to the Army Air Forces, according to TheHistoryMakers.com, an online collection of African-American oral histories.
He received basic training as an aviation cadet at Boca Raton Club, Fla., and technical training at Yale University, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Forces. Williams served as an engineering officer in the 99th Fighter Squadron. He did not see combat. In 1942, Williams was among the more than 100 black officers who tried to integrate a whites-only officers' club at Freeman Field in Indiana. They were arrested, but all were eventually exonerated and their military records cleared.
The incident became a bellwether for the end of segregation in the military in 1945.
Williams' daughter Brenda Payton Jones recalled hearing the story about Freeman Field and feeling "just so incredibly proud."
Williams told his superiors: "If I can't go into the officers' club, then I shouldn't be an officer," Payton Jones said. "That was the way we heard it growing up. "When I thought of a young man, 21, standing up on his own for what he knew was right … ."
After his military service, Williams obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry from NMSU and earned his M.D. from Creighton University School of Medicine. He founded the Williams Medical Clinic in Chicago with two brothers, practiced as a general surgeon and eventually retired in Las Cruces.
In 2007, Williams and other Tuskegee Airmen won the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.
source: Stars and Stripes
fubar57
General
Old Wizard
2nd Lieutenant
