Need help finding a "Courageous" Pilot

Dave Theisen said:
I know a guy brave enough to show up to his own fly-in a day late. :)
Click to expand...

Wait, here he comes now:

DSC_7175-X2.jpg
 
Alan Shepard. I would think being the first to ride a rocket and enter “space” might take some courage.
 
Amelia Earhart. I’m just hoping you find her after some research for your paper.
 
Try to find Henning. He's a courageous pilot that will give you volumes of "proof."
 
Here's another World War II German Pilot, Eric Hartmann. He had the most kills of any pilot in World War II. Hartmann was forced to crash-land his fighter 16 times due to either damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down or mechanical failure. After the war, he was turned over to the Soviets who referred to him as the black devil because of how many of their planes he had shot down. Spent 10 years in prison, many times in solitary confinement for not cooperating with the Russians and refusing to fly for East Germany. After his release, he flew for West Germany and was outspoken against their Air Force using the F104. This opposition led to a forced retirement even though he was proven correct and if they had listened, could of saved a lot of pilots.

Excerpts from wiki:

During similar interrogations about his knowledge of the Me 262, Hartmann was struck by a Soviet officer using a cane, prompting Hartmann to hit the assailant with a chair, knocking him out. Expecting to be shot, he was transferred back to the small bunker.

Hartmann, not ashamed of his war service, opted to go on a hunger strike and starve rather than fold to "Soviet will", as he called it.[72] The Soviets allowed the hunger strike to go on for four days before force-feeding him. More subtle efforts by the Soviet authorities to convert Hartmann to communism also failed. He was offered a post in the East German Air Force, which he refused.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Hartmann
 
Last edited:
EdFred said:
The name Yuri Gagarin mean anything?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know. 1 month. But it’s not like Shepard signed up after he heard Yuri did it and lived. Those cats had been preparing a long time. But either one, and those after (Glenn, Grissom, etc.)
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Yeah, I know. 1 month. But it’s not like Shepard signed up after he heard Yuri did it and lived. Those cats had been preparing a long time. But either one, and those after (Glenn, Grissom, etc.)
Click to expand...
The way you stated it implied Shepard was the first into space.
 
Maj Charles Kelley, the FIRST Dustoff. KIA. Last words: "When I have your wounded."
LTC Paul Bloomquist, 4 DFC's, 2 PH's, 32 Air medals. He and I got some time one night in that YUH-1D
on the pedestal at Ft Sam Houston.
Mike Novosel Sr. WW2 B24/B29 pilot, airline pilot (DC9), Dustoff pilot, Golden Knights pilot.
Mike Novosel Jr. Shared the cockpit with "Sr" down in the delta in RVN. One week, they each seperately got shot
down and were rescued by the other. No kidding.
Maj Bob Heinz Air Amb pilot, (OH-13) Korean War. My CO in RVN, Made a me into a Dustoff pilot, He stayed in
the cockpit too long. Gutsiest pilot I ever saw.

Bob
 
Piperonca said:
When LTG Peers came to the Americal Division in 1970 to investigate My Lai, I was assigned to be his personal pilot. So I got to stand at the wall for some of the briefings. One day I noticed a young man at the table in jungle fatigues with no markings of rank or unit, just "Thompson", "US ARMY". He had been sent back to Vietnam to support the investigation. Skip forward a few decades and I met him formally at the Quad A convention in Nashville, a few years before his death. My great fortune was to be able to tell him how much his act of conscience had meant to so many. It is a lesson for the ages.
Click to expand...
I knew Buck Thompson when he and I flew with Air Logistics. He left to be a Vet adviser in Lafayette, LA. He saved many that day in RVN.
 
I met a corospondent when I was a 19 yr old Marine serving in the middle east. Her name was Dickie Chapelle. She did a lot of gutsy things like jumping with S.F. teams. Later, she went on a mission with a Marine Recon team and was hit on a trail in Laos and bled out.
 
Bob Hoover would be an easy one to do. Lots of relevant material on him. I wouldn't call Sully courageous. To me a courageous person is someone who knows the risk and does the act anyway. Sully had no choice and did what he had to do to save his beacon as well as his passengers. Outstanding aviator but doesn't fit my definition of courageous.

To be less specific you could do a group like the Dolittle raids, or the red tail squadron.
 
EdFred said:
you could always interview that one guy that landed at Gaston's when it was pitch black.
Click to expand...

Which one - they guy in the Cherokee, or the guy in the 140?
 
How about Eddie Rickenbacker?
Indy Race car driver, WW1 ace, Medal of Honor recipient, survivor or at least two air crashes, one where he was adrift in the Pacific for 24 days.
 
Lindbergh has got to be in the running here. Setting off across the ocean in an overloaded single-engine airplane with no credible weather forecast, no radio nav, and not even a front window. Icing, t-storms, fog, no sleep for 33 hours. Actually, this is adding up to "stupid" instead of "courageous" LOL.
 
Last edited:
I can name a few...

Roger Peterson
Matt Rust
Glenn Belz
Richard Fraser
Ken Ferguson
 
Bell206 said:
D-Day glider pilots. Take your pick.
Click to expand...
My father in law was a glider pilot in Normandy on the 7th, is that close enough? He found his way back to England twice to do it again in Belgium and Holland.
 
Any Thud pilot who went north more than once. Google Karl Richter. . .
 
vontresc said:
I can name a few...

Roger Peterson
Matt Rust
Glenn Belz
Richard Fraser
Ken Ferguson
Click to expand...
I recognize the second name on your list. One day, a Mathius Rust decided to take a 172, head for Moscow and go "downtown". Same one?
 
How about John Stapp who rode the rocket sled while doing testing for what kind of G-forces the human body could sustain:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stapp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_sled
He was subjected to 46.2g in one test and survived. These tests led to significant advancements in crashworthiness and vehicular restraint systems for military aviation.

Or how about Boone Guyton, one of the test pilots for the Corsair.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boone_Guyton
In his book "This Exciting Air" he talks about taking the corsair up to some altitude entering a vertical dive towards the ground until he reached terminal velocity and pulling out at 9g to test the aircraft (among other tests). That takes courage.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HT47A8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top