Scotty was a pilot?

[bflynn]

Something I never knew - James Doohan, aka Scotty on the original Star Trek series, flew a Taylorcraft during WW-II (for Canada). He was originally in infantry and shot by friendly fire on D-Day, one bullet removed the middle finger on his right hand and one to his chest was stopped by his cigarette case. After recovering, he learned to fly for artillery direction and once flew his airplane between two telegraph poles to prove to someone that it could be done.

I have no idea if he kept flying after the war.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/wo...ran-chief-mechanic-starship-enterprise.html/2

 

[Timbeck2]

So was Aunt Bee.

 

[James331]

Something I never knew - James Doohan, aka Scotty on the original Star Trek series, flew a Taylorcraft during WW-II (for Canada). He was originally in infantry and shot by friendly fire on D-Day, one bullet removed the middle finger on his right hand and one to his chest was stopped by his cigarette case. After recovering, he learned to fly for artillery direction and once flew his airplane between two telegraph poles to prove to someone that it could be done.

I have no idea if he kept flying after the war.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/wo...ran-chief-mechanic-starship-enterprise.html/2

Don't make em like that anymore

RIP

 

[Pilawt]

Gene Roddenberry (weird personality though he was) had been a Pan Am pilot in earlier years. Bill Shatner learned to fly while the original ST series was in production. One of the earliest issues of Private Pilot magazine had an article titled "Captain Kirk and The Cardinal," in which the writer described Shatner's experience in being checked out in a then-new 1969 177A Cardinal. Leonard Nimoy was a pilot, as well. The recent documentary by his son, "For The Love of Spock" (now on Netflix) has a home-movie clip of him flying his '71 Cherokee Arrow 200.

Fascinating.

one bullet removed the middle finger on his right hand and one to his chest was stopped by his cigarette case.

Not often you hear of someone's life being saved by smoking ...

 

[bflynn]

So was Aunt Bee.

Yup. I grew up about 45 minutes from Siler City where she lived and learned to fly. Also did a lot of practice at that airport when I was working on shorts/softs during primary training because KSCR - then 5W8 - was a lot less busy than KTTA.

Didn't know that about Shattner and Nimoy either. And Dooghan said the same thing about smoking saving his life...

 

[SoCal RV Flyer]

one bullet removed the middle finger on his right hand

One could say he "gave the finger" to that bullet. Go Scottie!

I grew up on reruns of the original Star Trek...probably explains, at least partly, why I'm in aviation today. I hope the bookends of my life will be the moon landing (when I was 6) and putting humans on Mars (before I'm 85).

 

[Jimmy cooper]

Try Jerry billings. Also a Canadian who flew spitfires in ww2. Later he flew cliff robertsons P51 for many years, which he kept most of the time on a grass strip at his home where he also kept an aeronca champ. Superb pilot and a real spitfire driver.