I’ve had the privilege of getting to know and work with — and promote — many wonderful and talented people in aviation, many who the public only saw from a distance at an airshow, in a movie or on television, or in a magazine article. So often people expect something from these people. What’s been rewarding for me has been to give something to these people who have given so much to the aviation community and the public.
One aviation icon I never dreamt of giving something to was Robert A. (Bob) Hoover, someone who for the first 20 years of my career in publishing, I really did not know very well, although our paths would occasionally cross at an airshow or a convention. It wasn’t until the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revoked his Airman Medical Certificate that we became good friends and really got to know one another. I gave Bob my support and thought he was given a bad rap!
In the last edition of “Backstage,” I highlighted airshow performer Vlado Lenoch and his P-51 Mustang, “Moonbeam McSwine.” https://midwestflyer.com/two-great-experiences-the-same-day-thanks-to-two-great-people/
What I did not mention were his comments about what Bob Hoover meant to him as an airshow performer. When asked who inspired him the most, Vlado said “Bob Hoover!” When asked to share his most memorable airshow experience, he said “Flying in front of Bob Hoover.”
Vlado performed his first airshow at Dupage Airport in West Chicago in July 1970.
“I flew a simple Citabria,” said Vlado. “That afternoon, I saw the magnificent flight of the Mustang as flown only by Bob Hoover. I was completely in awe by the flight profile and massive/powerful engine roar coming from the yellow bird (‘Ole Yeller’). I just couldn’t believe how wonderful and effortless the demonstration was flown. My earliest thoughts, as I recall, was a vow to someday fly like that.”
Vlado continued: “After his flight display, I did go up to Bob to shake his hand. As a typical 17-year-old, I said the meekest ‘Hello’ to Bob. He was very nice and returned a firm handshake back to this awestruck fledgling. Not a very auspicious conversation or deep thought into sharing some of the quirks flying near the edge of the envelope. Nope, no such luck! Just a squeak of a ‘Hello’ (from me). We all gotta start somewhere! I am very glad and fortunate that today I am able to fulfill that young aviator’s dream.”
Vlado Lenoch flew successfully for many years after that, but on July 16, 2017, he and his passenger were killed in a P-51D Mustang 2.5 miles northeast of Cummings, Kansas. Vlado, 64, was from Burr Ridge, Illinois. His passenger, Bethany Root, manager of the Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport in Atchison, Kansas, was 34. The aircraft was owned by Mustang Historic Military Aircraft, LLC. (NTSB CEN17FA270).
Bob Hoover began flying in 1937, flew 58 missions in World War II, and was an outstanding military and civilian test pilot. He set altitude and speed records in several North American and Rockwell aircraft, and performed at airshows in his Shrike Commander, T-39 Sabreliner, and P-51 Mustang.
Only 21 at the time, Bob joined the 52nd Fighter Group stationed in Sicily, one of two Spitfire outfits in the Army Air Force. Fifty-eight successful missions followed, but during his 59th mission, his Mk.V British Spitfire was shot down by a much faster German Focke Wulf 190 off the coast of southern France, and he spent 16 months in the prisoner of war camp “Stalag 1” before he was able to escape, steal an FW 190, and fly out of enemy territory.
Once back in the United States, Bob continued his career as a military test pilot.
In 1947, he was selected as the backup pilot to Chuck Yeager with the X-1 team, witnessing firsthand that monumental achievement in aviation history – the breaking of the sound barrier! Even Yeager said that Bob Hoover was “the greatest pilot” he ever saw!
Bob Hoover set both “transcontinental” and “time-to-climb” speed records, and knew and was respected by such aviation greats as Orville Wright, Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, Jacqueline Cochran, Neil Armstrong, and Yuri Gagarin, who saved him from the KGB at an international aerobatic competition in Moscow during the height of the Cold War. This, and other great career feats, are told in Bob’s autobiography “Forever Flying” with author Mark Shaw.
Bob had flown more than 300 types of aircraft, and for a half century, dazzled crowds at more than 2,000 airshows across the United States, Canada, Australia, and Mexico which earned him the title “King of the Air Shows!” Bob was also the safety pilot for the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada, flying his P-51 Mustang above the racers, ready to advise them should an emergency occur.
Most pilots would be exhausted after performing aerobatics all day, but on June 15, 1986, the last day of the “Michigan International Airshow” in Kalamazoo, Mich., Bob performed in both his Shrike Commander and Sabreliner, then flew the Sabreliner back home, nonstop to Los Angeles, while his announcer, Jim “Jimmy” Driskoll, followed behind in the Shrike Commander.
Of course, not everything in Bob’s career went well. In 1992, he had flown his usual great performance in the Shrike Commander at “Aerospace America” in Oklahoma City, Okla., and felt that his demonstration met the high standards he had always set for himself. Among his fellow performers who witnessed his performance were 1980 World Aerobatic Champion, Leo Loudenslager, and airshow performers Sean D. Tucker and Steve Oliver, all three of whom were Aerobatic Competency Evaluators (ACEs) appointed by the FAA. Nevertheless, two months later, two FAA inspectors filed a report stating that, based on their observations at that show, Bob’s flying skills had deteriorated. “They concluded that at 70 years of age, it (was) time for me to hang up my wings and retire from airshow performances,” said Bob. “Later I was told that the inspectors saw this as an opportunity to make a reputation for themselves by being the ones who grounded Bob Hoover.” There was also speculation that the whole ordeal had something to do with mandating the retirement age of airline pilots. If that were true, what stronger message could the FAA send the airline industry than to bust the greatest pilot to ever live at age 70?
In 1993, the FAA revoked Bob’s Commercial Pilot Certificate, prohibiting him from performing in the United States, alleging he was medically unfit to fly. So, Bob obtained an Australian pilot certificate and continued to perform there, as well as in Canada, Mexico and Japan.
Longtime friend, admirer and fellow pilot, Attorney F. Lee Bailey, represented Bob in court proceedings, and attended Aerospace America on June 17, 1995, where I interviewed Mr. Bailey over the public address system in front of thousands of spectators. Bob had always hoped that in the end justice would prevail and it did years later. But the entire case should have been dismissed from the beginning by the FAA Administrator, especially in lieu of the battery of physical and psychological examinations Bob passed with flying colors! If the Administrator tried to intervene and failed, it shows that the bureaucracy of the FAA is more powerful than he was as a political appointee.
Bob Hoover has received numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious “Lindbergh Award.” Bob is the only person ever to be elected president of the exclusive Society of Experimental Test Pilots twice, and in 1988, he was enshrined into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, alongside such pioneers as Neil Armstrong, Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker, the Wright brothers, and his longtime friend, Chuck Yeager. Bob Hoover was described by Jimmy Doolittle as “the greatest stick-and-rudder man who ever lived!”
Bob once demonstrated the Northrop F-5E jet fighter at the Paris Air Show, as well as the Rockwell Shrike Aero Commander. The story of how Bob was able to convince the President and CEO of Rockwell to let him fly and promote a competitor’s aircraft at the same airshow, is in itself worth buying his book “Forever Flying” (see pages 230-231). Yes, Bob was as smooth (and diplomatic) on the ground, as he was in the air!
It was Bob’s showmanship that earned him the coveted “Bill Barber Award For Showmanship,” which I had the honor of presenting to him on July 31, 1995 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
Peggy and I created the award in 1986 because at the time there wasn’t an award to recognize the superb showmanship of airshow performers. The “Eagles Aerobatic Flight Team” starring Charlie Hillard, Gene Soucy and Tom Poberezny, were the first performers to receive the award, although that first year, the award was called the “Airshow Performer of the Year Award.” The award was renamed the “Bill Barber Award For Showmanship” in 1987 after the late Bill Barber, who was one of our contributing editors for a magazine we published for the airshow entertainment industry at the time, died of cancer on October 10, 1987, at the age of 61.
Bill Barber was one of the most versatile and theatrical airshow performers of all time, having flown as many as five totally different showplanes, consisting of 14 unique acts, during a two-day airshow near Chicago. Bill was best known for his performances in his Black Wasp Boeing Stearman, the “Black Baron.” Bill was a member of an elite airshow troupe in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which included airshow announcer Danny Clisham; Bill’s wingwalker, Eddie “The Grip” Green; and pilots Jim Mynning and Bob Barden.
Since 1986, the award has been presented to dozens of top performers. A committee made up of past award recipients selects the performer who has demonstrated exceptional showmanship abilities based on nominations received by the industry at large. The actual plaque started out being very modest in design, but thanks to the generosity of Bob Barden, the award was – shall we say — spruced up a bit beginning in 1996.
I met Bob Barden on November 5, 1995, following a reception in the fieldhouse at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. We were there to celebrate the Eagles Aerobatic Flight Team’s final performance having completed 25 years in the business.
I was walking down the hallway to leave the reception when Bob and his wife, Maggie, came up from behind me and introduced themselves. From that moment on, we became friends with the goal of preserving the legacy of Bill Barber.
Backstage At EAA’s Theater In The Woods
Waiting “backstage” with me and Bob Hoover on July 31, 1995, at EAA’s Theater in the Woods, was U.S. Air Force Captain Scott O’Grady, who was the featured speaker that evening. If you recall, Capt. O’Grady’s F-16C Falcon was shot down June 2, 1995, in the skies over Bosnia and Herzegovina by a 2K12 Kub mobile SAM launcher and he was forced to eject. Scott evaded capture by Bosnian Serbs for nearly a week until U.S. Marines from heavy-helicopter squadron HMH-464 and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, eventually rescued him.
I asked Scott if he would like to meet Bob Hoover, and his eyes lit up. The two fighter pilots had much in common having both been shot down and survived!
In addition to receiving the “Bill Barber Award For Showmanship” in 1995, Bob was also inducted into the Air Show Hall of Fame later that year, and received the “Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy” in 2014.
Bob’s U.S. Airman Medical Certificate was eventually reinstated, and he returned to the American airshow circuit for several years before retiring. But once he reached age 77, he was unable to obtain insurance to perform.
Bob Hoover’s final airshow performance was on November 13, 1999, at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. He flew his last non-aerobatic show in 2000 at Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Fla. His last flight in the Shrike Commander took place on October 10, 2003, from Lakeland, Florida, to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s annex at Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia, with long-time friend Steve Clegg. The Shrike Commander is now on permanent display at the museum, along with a life-size bronze statue of Bob. One of his flight suits is also displayed in a glass-enclosed case by the aircraft.
Flown by Bob for 20 years, N500RA is the most recognized Shrike Commander 500S in the world, painted in Evergreen International green and white colors which was his longtime sponsor. Towards the end of his career, Bob was sponsored by Ryan International and other companies.
Bob purchased his Shrike Commander in 1979, and with his extraordinary test pilot and fighter pilot skills, brought this simple business aircraft design to international acclaim. Bob used the aircraft to perform his signature deadstick (engine off) energy management routine which included a loop, roll, 180-degree turn back to the airport, then after landing, he would taxi to airshow center, climb out of the aircraft, and take his well-deserved bow.
Also, on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is 1980 World Aerobatic Champion Leo Loudenslager’s Bud Light Laser 200, and the vintage “Pepsi Skywriter” Travel Air biplane.
From 1931 to 1953, Andy Stinis performed skywriting in this aircraft for Pepsi-Cola. Suzanne Asbury-Oliver performed skywriting in the aircraft for 25 years after that.
Knowing that Leo Loudenslager and Steve and Suzanne Asbury-Oliver were friends of Bob Hoover, makes the Udvar-Hazy Center an even more fitting place to display their airplanes and artifacts.
What’s also meaningful is that Leo, Steve and Suzanne are all recipients of the “Bill Barber Award For Showmanship!”
Bob aged with grace and remained mentally sharp and focused to the end.
In 2013, Honda Aircraft Company President, CEO and Founder, Michimasa Fujino, who designed, engineered, and built the HA-420 HondaJet, honored Bob Hoover with a special reception during EAA AirVenture 2013. Every aviation celebrity you can think of was there, including Patty Wagstaff, Dick Rutan and others, as well as entertainer Tony Orlando. We all stood in line for food and beverage, and the chance to greet Bob!
During EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015, Bob was to hold a press conference, but was late getting there, so most of the media reps had already left. Then, from a distance, he called out my name, so I approached the car he was riding in from the passenger side. For 5 minutes, I visited with my longtime friend for what would be the last time.
Bob lived in Pales Verdes, California with his wife, Colleen, who he adored. They had two children, Rob and Anita.
After being gone for so many years performing worldwide, Bob told me that he owed it to Colleen to now spend more time at home with her.
Colleen passed away on March 11, 2016, at the age of 91. Bob passed away on October 25, the same year, at the age of 94.
My only regret was never getting the chance to fly with Bob, but unknown to him, he has always flown with me.
