Bob Hoover

R. A. "Bob" Hoover (1922- ) was a legendary air show pilot and USAF test pilot.

Bob Hoover learned to fly at Nashville's Berry Field while working at a local grocery store to pay for the flight training. He enlisted in the Tennessee National Guard and was sent for pilot training with the Army. He was sent to Casablanca where his first major assignment of the war was test flying the assembled aircraft ready for service. He was later assigned to the Spitfire-equipped 52nd Fighter group in Sicily. After 58 successful missions, on the 59th his Mark V Spitfire was shot down by a Focke-Wulf 190 off the coast of Southern France in 1944 and was taken prisoner. He spent 16 months at the German prison camp Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Germany.

He managed to escape from the prison camp, stole a FW-190 (or so the legend goes), and flew to safety in Holland. After the war, he was assigned to flight test duty at Wright Field. There he impressed and befriended Chuck Yeager. Hoover hoped to break the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, but unfortunately, a desperate bailout from an F-84 Thunderjet shattered both his legs, dashing his hopes of flying the X-1. Later when Yeager was asked who he wanted for flight crew for the supersonic Bell X-1 flight, he named Bob Hoover. Hoover was Yeager's backup pilot in the Bell X-1 program and flew chase for Yeager in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star during the Mach 1 flight, and flew chase for the 50th anniversary in a F-16.

He left the Air Force for civilian jobs in 1948. This included test/demonstration pilot with North American Aviation where he went on bombing missions with the F-86 over Korea.

Bob Hoover has set records for transcontinental and "time to climb" speed, and has personally known such great aviators as Orville Wright, Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, Jacqueline Cochran, Neil Armstrong, and Yuri Gagarin.

Bob Hoover is most well known for his air show career and record attempts. His most famous air show act was his "Energy Management" routine in the Shrike Commander, a twin-engined piston business aircraft; he put the aircraft through its paces (rolls, loops, et al), then, for the grand finale, he shut down both engines and executed a loop and an eight-point hesitation slow roll as he headed back to the runway. He touched down on one tire, then the other, before landing. His air show career ended over medical concerns when he was unable to get the insurance required by most air shows.

Bob Hoover is considered one of the founding fathers of modern aerobatics, he was described by Jimmy Doolittle as, "...the greatest stick-and-rudder man who ever lived." In the Centennial of flight edition of the Air & Space Smithsonian, he was named the third greatest aviator in history.

During his illustriuous career he was awarded the following military medals: Distinguished Flying Cross, Soldier's Medal for Valor, Air Medal with Clusters, Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre. He was also made an honorary member of the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, American Fighter Aces Association, Original Eagle squadron and received an Award of Merit from the American Fighter Pilots Association.