R.A. "Bob" Hoover Passed Away....

[Deleted]

Bob Hoover passed away.  He was a WWII Ace and a Test Pilot.  He was the back up pilot to Yeager on the X-1 and flew it often.  He also flew some amazing stunts at airshows over the years.  In the short video above, he not only rolls his Shrike without spilling his tea, he pours another glass while rolling.  In the early days, he also was able to roll the F-86 just after take-off which no one else was able to do.

He was one hell of a pilot, maybe the best that ever was, a war hero and excellent test pilot and a great guy.

He will be missed.

Bill

[190mech]

He was DE MAN!!Quite a historic guy in aviation,he will be missed and never replaced...

[iwannascoot]

Bob Hoover had one of the most fascinating air show routines I have ever seen. He did maneuvers in an Aero Commander Shrike that were unbelievable.

Billy

[Deleted]

I am glad that you guys remember him. He and Yeager should have been killed in an aircraft 1,000 times statistically...hell...just surviving the war was amazing enough...but then to go on to a test pilot's career and then fly the airshow circuit for all of those years? Amazing...simply amazing.

I have his autobiography here in hardcover that I bought when it came out and I have read it like 4 times already. I have many books here on flying from back in that golden era from many of the greats but Bob Hoover will always stand out to me as the pilot's pilot.

Bill

PS  I forgot to add that he was 94.

[bluegoatwoods]

I'm afraid I don't recognize this fellow. But he was clearly good.

My Dad was a fighter pilot only a little bit younger. Were he alive today he'd be approaching his 93rd birthday.

He was in what we think of as the Air Force. Though it was the Army Air Corps at that time. All through my childhood and adulthood there was a photo of him in our home. And it's still in my Mother's home today. It's him graduating from pilot school. Or maybe officer's school. Something like that. I'd grown so used to it that it's just been part of the background of my life.

But there came a day, and I think it was somewhat less than ten years ago now, when I was visiting. My Dad was suffering from dementia but was still pretty coherent at this point.

I was looking at this photo that I'd been looking at for forty five years or more and I noticed something new.

The uniform he was wearing looked black. (Black and white photo). Plus there was a very obvious anchor on the cap. I was a little puzzled that I'd never noticed this before and I said to him, "Why, that looks like a Navy uniform".

He said, "Yeah. They're the ones who taught me to fly".

"Well...how did that come about?"

The first part I knew. Pearl Harbor happened about ten days before his eighteenth birthday. He finished high school and enlisted after graduating. But I'd thought that he enlisted in the Army. Apparently not. He'd enlisted in the Navy.

He went on to tell me that he'd gotten through pilot training and the Navy then looked at their situation and decided that they had, apparently, quite a few more pilots than they actually needed. So they discharged a whole bunch of them. Including my Dad.

So he, and others no doubt, went to the Army and said, "Can you use a pilot?"

This is hardly Earth-shattering. Only the smallest of anecdotes.

But ever since coming to understand all of this, I've had the humorous picture in my mind of those Army recruiters saying, "A bunch of qualified pilots?....God Bless the Navy!!"

Oh!...one other thing......I dislike flying. I can do it. But I don't like it one little bit.

In at least some ways, I'm not my Father's son.

[Deleted]

Oct 27, 2016 20:41:05 GMT -5 bluegoatwoods said:

I'm afraid I don't recognize this fellow. But he was clearly good.

My Dad was a fighter pilot only a little bit younger. Were he alive today he'd be approaching his 93rd birthday.

He was in what we think of as the Air Force. Though it was the Army Air Corps at that time. All through my childhood and adulthood there was a photo of him in our home. And it's still in my Mother's home today. It's him graduating from pilot school. Or maybe officer's school. Something like that. I'd grown so used to it that it's just been part of the background of my life.

But there came a day, and I think it was somewhat less than ten years ago now, when I was visiting. My Dad was suffering from dementia but was still pretty coherent at this point.

I was looking at this photo that I'd been looking at for forty five years or more and I noticed something new.

The uniform he was wearing looked black. (Black and white photo). Plus there was a very obvious anchor on the cap. I was a little puzzled that I'd never noticed this before and I said to him, "Why, that looks like a Navy uniform".

He said, "Yeah. They're the ones who taught me to fly".

"Well...how did that come about?"

The first part I knew. Pearl Harbor happened about ten days before his eighteenth birthday. He finished high school and enlisted after graduating. But I'd thought that he enlisted in the Army. Apparently not. He'd enlisted in the Navy.

He went on to tell me that he'd gotten through pilot training and the Navy then looked at their situation and decided that they had, apparently, quite a few more pilots than they actually needed. So they discharged a whole bunch of them. Including my Dad.

So he, and others no doubt, went to the Army and said, "Can you use a pilot?"

This is hardly Earth-shattering. Only the smallest of anecdotes.

But ever since coming to understand all of this, I've had the humorous picture in my mind of those Army recruiters saying, "A bunch of qualified pilots?....God Bless the Navy!!"

Oh!...one other thing......I dislike flying. I can do it. But I don't like it one little bit.

In at least some ways, I'm not my Father's son.

That is a great story and I am happy that you shared it.  God bless your Dad, and all of the others like him that served our country so well when they were needed most.  That was the amazing thing about that generation...there were hundreds of guys doing spectacular things...like flying in the war in both Europe and Japan, flight testing at Muroc (later Edwards AFB) and no one ever knew their names or what they did.  I have many books on these fellows here in my small apt.  I hope that you are proud of what your Dad did.  It took a lot of guts and not just anyone could do it.  There were a lot of heroes back then.

Bill

[bluegoatwoods]

Oct 27, 2016 20:55:58 GMT -5 PirateLabs said:

Oct 27, 2016 20:41:05 GMT -5 bluegoatwoods said:

I'm afraid I don't recognize this fellow. But he was clearly good.

My Dad was a fighter pilot only a little bit younger. Were he alive today he'd be approaching his 93rd birthday.

He was in what we think of as the Air Force. Though it was the Army Air Corps at that time. All through my childhood and adulthood there was a photo of him in our home. And it's still in my Mother's home today. It's him graduating from pilot school. Or maybe officer's school. Something like that. I'd grown so used to it that it's just been part of the background of my life.

But there came a day, and I think it was somewhat less than ten years ago now, when I was visiting. My Dad was suffering from dementia but was still pretty coherent at this point.

I was looking at this photo that I'd been looking at for forty five years or more and I noticed something new.

The uniform he was wearing looked black. (Black and white photo). Plus there was a very obvious anchor on the cap. I was a little puzzled that I'd never noticed this before and I said to him, "Why, that looks like a Navy uniform".

He said, "Yeah. They're the ones who taught me to fly".

"Well...how did that come about?"

The first part I knew. Pearl Harbor happened about ten days before his eighteenth birthday. He finished high school and enlisted after graduating. But I'd thought that he enlisted in the Army. Apparently not. He'd enlisted in the Navy.

He went on to tell me that he'd gotten through pilot training and the Navy then looked at their situation and decided that they had, apparently, quite a few more pilots than they actually needed. So they discharged a whole bunch of them. Including my Dad.

So he, and others no doubt, went to the Army and said, "Can you use a pilot?"

This is hardly Earth-shattering. Only the smallest of anecdotes.

But ever since coming to understand all of this, I've had the humorous picture in my mind of those Army recruiters saying, "A bunch of qualified pilots?....God Bless the Navy!!"

Oh!...one other thing......I dislike flying. I can do it. But I don't like it one little bit.

In at least some ways, I'm not my Father's son.

That is a great story and I am happy that you shared it.  God bless your Dad, and all of the others like him that served our country so well when they were needed most.  That was the amazing thing about that generation...there were hundreds of guys doing spectacular things...like flying in the war in both Europe and Japan, flight testing at Muroc (later Edwards AFB) and no one ever knew their names or what they did.  I have many books on these fellows here in my small apt.  I hope that you are proud of what your Dad did.  It took a lot of guts and not just anyone could do it.  There were a lot of heroes back then.

Bill

Thank you, Bill.

My Dad actually was an admirable guy in a number of ways. In a nutshell, he was very good at making lemonade out of lemons. There was more than one time that I remember when he'd be doing well, suffer setbacks (sometimes pretty serious ones), and still keep an optimistic attitude. And he'd manage to overcome.

And now that I'm no longer a kid, it seems that I have a similar attitude and have had some similar comebacks. (But I'll admit that my achievements have been a bit more slow and sloppy than his.)

So it seems that in some ways, I am my Father's son after all.