Pilot Celebrities... who are they?

Pilawt said:
Southern California late night TV addicts will remember car dealer Cal Worthington ("Go See Cal"), who passed away last year. According to an item yesterday in the radio industry blog L.A. Radio People, Cal "used to pilot his Learjet to the various cities in his empire – Houston, Phoenix, and Seattle – and tape tv ads on location"; and, "During much of the 1950s, he moonlighted as a traffic reporter at KXLA (1110 AM) in one of his planes every morning and afternoon in exchange for advertising time."
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Many pilots might love to go for a city tour every morning. Considering how many pilots are flying for nothing or next to it, that's quite an ingenious way to make boring holes in the sky worth some real money.

NickC99 said:
Word is that when [Angelina Jolie] soloed, her shirt wasn't cut because it was some expensive designer brand. Instead, she slipped off her bra and gave it to her instructor.
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Now there's a tradition I can get behind. Might even be good for getting women into flying, considering the recent revival of anti-bra sentiment among women not seen since the 60's.

NickC99 said:
B.B. King: He learned sometime back in the 60s. He stopped flying because management and insurance companies required him to fly with another qualified pilot... He said that pretty much defeated the purpose.
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Yeah, that's why I'm surprised to hear an NFL player flying himself from NOLA to Houston on a regular basis. As I recall the reason Cory Lidle had his CFI with him on their fatal flight was because his MLB contract prohibited him from acting as PIC.
 
write-stuff said:
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i'm certain that the seeds for my becoming a pilot started with my watching Sky King and his lovely daughter Penny.
 
World's Greatest Pilot- Jesse Angell?
 
petrolero said:
Now that is cool. And I didn't know about either Landry or Noll.

That reminds me... Go Steelers!
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Tom Landry was a B17 pilot in WWII. I don't know how many missions, but Paul Harvey did a "The Rest of the Story" about a really hairy combat situation and the pilot was Tom Landry. It would be worthwhile for any pilot to listen to That one because there was a great pilot training message within it.
 
Paulie said:
Landry killed himself in his 210 in weather.
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Paulie,

With all respect, I would ask you to please check your facts before posting something like that. Tom Landry survived multiple bombing missions over Europe as a B17 pilot, and was a safe and accomplished civilian pilot. Posting such disparaging, untrue information about a highly respected deceased person is very troubling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/13/sports/tom-landry-is-dead-at-75-innovative-coach-of-cowboys.html
 
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bbridges51 said:
i'm certain that the seeds for my becoming a pilot started with my watching Sky King and his lovely daughter Penny.
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Me too. I remember how excited I was when the Sky King rubber stamp that I ordered with box tops came in the mail when I was about five years old.
 
An interesting spin off from this thread would be the subset of these pilots who flew in the military and a smaller subset of those who flew combat missions.

The first ones for the combat list that come to mind are:

Tom Landry
George Bush the elder
Switch Henderson, I think
 
Gary Numan (not sure if he has been mentioned yet)
 
MBDiagMan said:
Well, I guess it worked well for him. He just had to add several more decimal places than most of us are accustomed to.:)
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Need a few more similar lines, and we could turn him into another "Most interesting man in the world".
 
Aaron Tippon hangs around the flight school here, he's actually a CFI. I didn't recognize him when I first met him actually. Very nice guy

Tim McGraw also flies a Caravan in addition to the Cirrus

Alan Jackson used to fly a turbine Maul around here pretty regularly, but hasn't been seen in a while. Rumor has it they got him to sing Chattahoochee on UNICOM once
 
MBDiagMan said:
An interesting spin off from this thread would be the subset of these pilots who flew in the military and a smaller subset of those who flew combat missions.

The first ones for the combat list that come to mind are:

Tom Landry
George Bush the elder
Switch Henderson, I think
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Clark Gable
Jimmy Stewart
Russell Johnson, was a bombadier in a B-25 that was shot down in the Philippines.
 
MBDiagMan said:
An interesting spin off from this thread would be the subset of these pilots who flew in the military and a smaller subset of those who flew combat missions.

The first ones for the combat list that come to mind are:

Tom Landry
George Bush the elder
Switch Henderson, I think
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Senator George McGovern, 15th AF B-24 pilot, flew out of Cerignola, Italy.
 
Zeldman said:
Clark Gable
Jimmy Stewart
Russell Johnson, was a bombadier in a B-25 that was shot down in the Philippines.
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Not to belittle Clark Gables selfless contribution to the war effort, but he was a gunner, not a pilot. After his aircraft took flak on a combat mission, his studio lobbied the air corps to remove him from combat duty and was successful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Gable

Jimmy Stewart on the other hand was a combat B24 Squadron Commander and flew missions over Germany and elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart
 
Zeldman said:
Slim Pickens flew in a green flight suit, cowboy hat and cowboy boots.
Audie Murphy
John Denver
Kris Kristofferson. Landed a helicopter at Johhny Cash front yard to give him words to a song.
Tom Landry (Dallas Cowboys coach)
Jimmy Stewart
Clark Gable
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Because Audie Murphy grew up very near where I live, I have read quite a lot about him. Although he was a fascinating person, I have NEVER read anywhere that he was a pilot. I'm pretty sure that he never so much as solo'd in a Cub.

He did, however, die in a plane crash. The plane was flown by a private pilot that apparently did a lot of charter flying illegally. Due to the fact that Audie had a huge gambling debt to the mob at the time, there were many who claimed that his death was a hit.
 
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