By Jack Cox

REMINISCING WITH BOB HOOVER Part II

"You couldn't handl e airplaneth e abov knots,0 20 e " In February, SPORT AVIATION Editor-in-Chief Jack Bob told me, "no matter how strong you were." Cox visited famed aerobatic/test pilotHooverhis Bob at Thus it was in the late 40's that North American de- office in EI Segundo, CA to tape a conversation with him cided the next logical engineering step had to be taken - sort-a of formalized bull session with sortthe of questions irreversibln a e electro-hydraulic control actuation system most EAAers would like to ask a pilot with Bob's fabulous with no mechanical connections whatever between the background. The result was a two-part article, Part I of ailerone th stic d elevatord kan s an . They designed sucha which printedwas last month. dealtIt with Bob's early system and after sufficient testing, made it standard in flying experiences moresomehis and of notable World the F-86E . . . and all the jet aircraft it built thereafter. War II adventures. This month in Part II, we move on to All military and big commercial jet aircraft have similar his test flying days with North American (now Rockwell systems today, of course. International). To tese systemth t , North American installea n i t di F-86A, actuating only the stabilator to begin with. There IN HIS 45 years of flying ... as a civilian and military wersystemso etw , actually primare th backup,a d yan . pilot tesa s ta , majopiloa r fo t r aero/spacn a s ea fird man Bob recallfellos hi d ws an thates e th t pilots approached s shar hi r sho goof ai d eHooveo b wha d Bo s pilo. . ha r . t their initial flights in the bird with more than a little s flowtime ha badd ne san H almos. t everything tha- re t concern. The system had been exhaustively tested on the quire a pilots s beeha , n showered with much deserved ground t thebeed bu , yha n around long enoug knoo ht w honors and has made friends in every part of the world. the best laid engineering plans often went awry the instant alss Heha o broke alarminn na g number of bone spend san t the t somypu e daylight betwee rune wheele th nth - d san more of his life in splints, casts, slings and hospital beds way. Knowing that when they wiggled the stick, they were than he really cares to dwell upon today. He has lived life doing nothing more than switching some hydraulic pumps supersonie th n i morn o d ec thaan lan occasioe . . n on e. n on and off was enough to keep the most callous among has paid the price for daring to venture beyond man's them wide awake well into the night before their turn in accumulated knowledg experienced ean . cockpite th . It follows, then, that when you ask a man with Bob Much of their relief, however, the initial flights went Hoover's past to pick out the hairiest scrape he ever got well littlA . e wor s necessarwa k provido yt e propeth e r himself into, you know you're about to be regaled with an feelt thatbu , , toos soowa ,n accomplished. honest-to-gosh mind bender. Then it happened. ! . . . e ar u yo d An Bob was scheduled for a test flight and after the usual If you recall last month's article, you know my taping skull session wit engineerse hth soos wa n, taxiinr fo t gou session with Bob took place in his tenth floor office in the take- ofLAX'n fo s Runwatake-ofe Th . y25 f nors rolwa l- Rockwell International building on Imperial Highway in mal, wit lift-ofe hth f coming about 2500 feet fro poine mth t EI Segundo, California. That' streee sth t that forme th s at which he had opened the kerosene tap. Cleanly off, Bob south border of LAX, the International Air -instane th d maine pulletth an geas . hi . sr. p thumpedu d port. In addition to being LA's major air line airport, it is into their well l helsal l broke loose! homnumbea r efo gianf o r t aerospace companiesf o e on , The airplane pitched straight up ... and Bob, acting which used to be . Bob went to on pure instinct, instantaneously jabbed the stick forward. work for the makers of the Mustang just as the firm was So hard, in fact, he tore the flesh between his thumb and getting into the jet age. He did test work on the FJ-2 and forefinge . the . . rn scrape s kneejammee dhi h s sa d them aircrafe th t that Navy fighter evolved into legendare th , y against what had suddenly become an immovable object. F-86 Sabre. His wildest ride came in a F-86 ... on take-off Almost as if rebounding off the frozen stick, Bob's hand from LAX's Runwa , whicloon y25 ca k e dowhh n upon from darte flico d"emergencye t th k " switch that activatee dth his office anytime he cares to stand up from his desk and back-up system that poweret go e stabilato th d an . . . r walk to the window. In fact, as he was relating to me what nothin responsen gi . Both systems, primar back-upd yan , yoe abouuar read o woult tb Bo , d occasionally point ou t were airplanoute Th . headins ewa g straigh comd an -p u t some feature belo s thawu t figured prominentle th n i y pletel controlf o t you ! story - where the old runway ended in 1950 ... it was only Bodeclared bha emergencn da y whe Sabre nth e pitched 5,000 feet long then and there was only one 25 ... there's alreadd an p u y company personnel were yellinm hi r gfo hangae todath R . . 25 almose y . h r d an tL hit25 , a etc. to eject that ,bu t took tim altitudd ean didn'e eh havet tye . But, we're getting ahead of the story. With a wing loading of nearly 60 pounds per square By 1950, jet fighters were literally running beyond the foot, the swept wing Sabre stood on its tail for just a couple capabilities of their control systems. As they edged ever of heartbeats before calling it quits. It twisted over on its e souncloseth o dt r barrier, pilots t havsimplno ed di y back, pitched down and started to ... from an altitude enough physical strength to move the controls to pull the moro n f e l right tha al feet 0 everd y n80 sB an . y physical s needeG' dog-fightinr dfo combatn i g e verTh .y earliest law of nature, Bob Hoover was about to die . . . jetbeed sha n built with strictly mechanical systemd san But he didn't. it took a strong armed pilot to turn them at high speed. onle Th ylef d thintha wite gh h whic savo ht e himself While at Muroc after the war, Bob flew the Heinkel 162 was the cable actuated rudder. He booted the Sabre out of and found he had to use two hands to make even gentl rotatioe th s a spie nd th stoppednan , someho miracul. . w . - turns. Beginning wit e P-80th h , hydraulically boosted wine ouslth . g . ybega. tako nt e hold. Grabbing some air, controls, somewhat akin to power steering on a car, were it began to slowly raise the Sabre's nose. With a frozen employed and this helped immensely. On faster airplanes windshiela stic d kan d ful unrushinf o l g runways wa b Bo , like the early F-86's, however, a pilot was in big trouble powerless to do more than sit there, instinctively gauging e boosith f t faile t higa d h spee dwhic- h happene- oc n do closure th eforcee ratth gravitwing'e f s eso a th d sy an lif t casion. battleuppee th r rdfo handmoro n t eA . than fifty feete th , 44 AUGUST 1983 (EAA Photo) balance tilted in favoroflift... and the continued existence Bob Hoover's worst accident was in a F-100 Super Sabre. The of the soft, pink bod hunkered down beneath the bird's aircraft shown is one of the early versions. North American's bubble canopy. chief , George Welch, was killed in a supersonic dive At least for a few more seconds. Coming out of the spin, test of a short tailed F-100A . .. the price paid for learning the the Sabre was headed perhaps 45° off the runway heading fighter needed a larger vertical tail. . . . aimed straight for a big hangar. Completely on its own, the nose was still coming up, but for what seemed to had gone wrong . . . otherwise, someone else - maybe Bob, Bob to be interminable seconds, it did not appear he'd clear himself - would ultimately have to go through all this the roof. The arc was tightening, however, and he made again, and might not be so lucky the next time around. it with a few feet to spare. Everything went well until the Sabre hit turbulence Now, the roller coaster began its second climb. This over the mountains. The delicate aerodynamic balance time as it neared the stall, Bob ruddered it over in a sort Bob had achieved was quickly tipped and like a tumbled of exaggerated hammerhead and once again it headed gyro, the airplane was suddenly all over the sky again. earthward. The fighter had been accelerating, however, The whole take-off horror sequence was repeated, fortu- and this time the recovery was a little quicker and a little nately with lots of altitude to spare this time, and again higher than the first one. For the next few heartstopping he was able to get the airplane on an even keel. minutes, Bob continued "walking" the Sabre westward Out over the Mojave Desert, Bob gingerly felt out the toward the Pacific shoreline . . . with company officials Sabre, ruddering it around to different headings and learn- pleading with him to bail out. He was over houses and ing just how much leeway in pitch he had to play with . . factories filled with workers, however, and had decided he . all the while continuing to ignore the ever more insistent would stick with it as long as it appeared he had a chance "bail out!" requests. Ultimately, he made his decision. He of getting to the ocean. Throughout all the frantic jabbering had 11 miles of dry lake bed at Muroc to work with and on the radio, people kept asking Bob if he had hit the he was going to attempt a landing. He told Joe Lynch, a "emergency". By this time perhaps the calmest person in fellow North American test pilot in one of the F-86 chase the communications loop, Bob finally blurted out in exasp- planes, what he had in mind . . . and got one last entreaty eration, "Don't you think that was the very first thing I to hit the silk. did!" Over Daggett, CA Bob lined up with the lake bed that As he was roller coastering his way west, Bob had would become famous thirty years later as the landing begun experimenting with the flaps, dive brake, landing place for the space shuttle. Very slowly the power was gear and throttle, attempting to achieve a stable condition backed off as Bob sought to maintain the "flying wing" in pitch . . . and, amazingly, he was able to do it. By pitch condition, yet get slow enough to affect a safe landing. balancing the power and drag, he, in effect, made a flying He knew and was worrying about the fact that the wheels wing out of the Sabre. It felt so good, in fact, that Bob told had never been spun up over 210 knots. Would the tires the chase pilots that were now alongside him he would try blow an instant after touchdown? Could the landing gear to fly the airplane north over the San Gabriel mountains struts take the inevitable side loads that bumps would to Muroc (now Edwards AFB). He was again urged to eject, produce? No one knew, of course, but there was absolutely but Bob was beginning to dare hope he might save the no doubt about what would happen if any of those airplane. He knew how much it would mean to North things occurred. The fighter would stick a wing into the American to be able to dissect the bird to find out what ground, flip and in a couple of sickening seconds would SPORT AVIATION 45 scatter itself all over the desert floor. s ostop-cockeI , shuttindit engine gth e down. e lakd e loometh edgAn Bob'i th be esf o ep u sd r worou kl "Nowal wit e engineern i hth , s before w e windshield e hearh ,e LyncJo d h calmly ask, "Bobu ,yo flee F-100wth e nevew , r considere e possibilitth d f o y know how fast you are?" landin e airplanth g e withou n enginea t . Wit a hwin g "Yes, Joe nose th knoI , tryine t m up.I' ge w - o gt " loadin ovef g o pound 7 7 r r squarspe e foot felsine e w th ,t k "There' chanco sn survivinf eo t thiga s speed." rate greao woul to mak o t e t db esurvivabla e landing. "I know, Joe." "But everything was looking so good to me that I just But Bob also knew he was committed. He was passing said that I thought I could manage it - in spite of what througw lo fee0 knoto 0 h20 t. whic to 24 ... s t s. a . hwa had been agreed upon. So, I whistled back toward North aroundo g a applicatioe y Th slo.o tr to o w t ejeco t d an nt Bas t Edwardsea d stild 20,00an ,ha l 0 feet whe I ncam e of take-off power would certainly sen e Sabrdth e ints oit realln i s overywa gooI . steea dp shapeu p t se I feltI , o s , bucking bronco act, and . . . turning approac broughd han t arouni t finalo dt . Again, Mercifully, there was no time to contemplate the con- everyon s tellinbaio t ewa e l I saidgoutm t ,bu , 'Nom I' , sequences e groun Th . s rushin alreadd dwa an b y gb yBo going to stay with it - everything's looking good.' could feel the initial buoyancy of ground effect. With no "They said they would get the emergency equipment elevator, there was nothing he could do except steer with moving, then asked how it was going on final. 'Oh, it's ridd e rudde t outan th ei . . .. r going grea it'- t spieca cake!f eo ' Over three decades later, e stile aw on l f senseo t bi sa geae th rd down"Iha t the begaI bu ,s na flareo nt e th , in Bob's voice when he describes the touchdown. controls froze - the power system had gone out. I was doing I couldn'" controo n e t d th believ t ha l I ovebu . , eit it r I said d ,knotan 5 'I'v. 28 . e. s lost it!e las'th Thats wa t thing made absolutel e mosth y t cushioned landing I've thin gsaidI . ever made. It just greased on, as pretty as you please. I "Whe n hitI airplane ,th e just absolutely crunched itself was expectin destroo t t gi y itsel soot toucheds i fa s na t bu , flat ... it took out the gear and it hit so hard that the it just greased on that lake bed and I rolled out the entire instrument panel came righ tshinsy e dowm n Th .o n 11 miles I had in front of me. In fact, I rolled right up on impacwhed an momena nr I o tfo tw blacke t r o tou e dm the main base where our company crew was waiting. - aboud r fee0 an ai - 20 t e s bacth clearewa n i k I , dup "And now I have to tell you the kicker to all this. When standing on the left wingtip. Like the F-86, the F-100 had we inspected the airplane, we found that all that urging mechanicaa time t th hi eI y b l rudderd an stooI t i o s ,n do I was getting to bail out was purely academic. Someone the ground the second time, the right wing caught and forgotted ha e ejectio th tak o t t n eou n seat's lockinn gpi slamme e airplandth e down really hard t stayeI . d down, before I had taken off. I couldn't have ejected if I had though, and began to spin around. It made a couple of wanted to!" turns before coming to a halt. t wha d beeBu ha tn wrong wit e Sabre'th h s control "I was unconscious from that point, but revived when system? they chopped a hole in the canopy and fresh air started "Would you believe - stray voltage! The primary and coming through. I told the rescue people not to move me back-up power systems for the stabilator were common to because I thought my back was broken. I wasn't sure about a single electrical connection, and when the wheels hit the my legs because I was experiencing so much pain, it was wells t blockei system,e th t slae dou b Th . tail wen freo t e hard to pinpoint its source. floatin g- whereve e aerodynamith r c pressures force. it d "They didn't move me until a doctor got there . . . and It would just go up and down at will. I though y I explaine bacy wh s broken m t m kwa hi o .dt "That flight lasted about 40 minutes, but it was the Dick Johnson, a test pilot for Convair, had broken his back most hair raisin eveI e rg on made . f I'vo t e lo baile a t dou monthw fe a s earliedescribed F-10a ha e n d i rm 2an o dt times and have had some nasty accidents, but this one - ho t wfeli lik — t a esof t grapefrui r orangeo t a liquid, , boy, I tell you, it was a real nightmare! It happened so squishy lump growing rapidl e breakpoine th th f t o tya . take-offn quickljuso s d wa t an sheet i ;y- r luck that go t As soon as I came to, I could feel the same sort of thing me through that first pitch-up/dive cycle, just missine gth up betwee shouldey nm r blades causins havo wa t t e I .e gm ground and the hangar, and again out on the desert when trouble breathing. baio t lw out.lo o "to s wa I "The rescue crew took their time and lifted me out of the airplane still in the seat. At the base hospital, I was Nasty Break X-rayed and the report was, 'No, it isn't broken - you can opened Andha , sinc dooe b so dth , e Bo r wit refers hhi - get up and walk out of here.' I told them I didn't feel like ence to the "nasty" accidents he had had, I forged onward, walking - that I still thought I had a problem. I told them I wante broughe b o dt ta secon bacr fo k d A dowL o t n asking just beenwhad worss ha hi te . on t opinion. prototype th n i guesI s " worse e wa F-100 e soth e fth ton . beins sood wa an ngI , "Thecheckeit d ydi d into Good It was the first airplane to fly with the J-57 engine, which Samaritan Hospital. They rolled me over on my side and was subject to compressor stalls. No one knew what com- took an X-ray ... and, sure enough, found a diagonal break pressor stalls were bac learne e 1954n ki w t hurrya ,n bu d i . - one that couldn't show up on the head-on (or back on) In this particular engine violento s e stals th , wa l, your shot mad t Edwardsea . Boy smartese , th thas twa t decision feet woul piloy an d tk comas u ee floor righyo th f f I .of t I ever made. If I had tried to walk, the vertebrae might who ever sat up on top of the J-57, he'll tell you it's like have slipped alon diagonae gth t righl breacu td intkan o sitting on the barrel of a 75mm cannon and having it go my spinal cord! off. Fire comes out of the air intake up front just like a "The docto t Goora d Samaritan said, 'It' smiracla u eyo canno . it' e mos. sn. th t startling experience you've ever didn't follow the doctor's advice and walk out of the place.' youn i d r lifeha ! At any rate, I was out of business for a while after that." "The particular fligh question i thav o t s e nbeewa e nth first one during which we fired the 20mm cannons on the The Choice F-100. taked 1ha n off from Edwards, heading north toward Inyokern, and at about 42,000 feet I got one of those And, finally, I got around to asking Bob what his explosions. I brought the throttle back, thinking I had a favorite airplane was ... a matter of much more than fuel line separation and was getting a combustible mixture passing interest in the case of someone who has flown as inside the engine compartment that was torching off. This many airplanes as he has. I would suspect that most pilots goody didn'an ,o howevetd r -1 kept gettin explosionse gth , would assume Bob's choice to be the P-51, so closely has 46 AUGUST 1983 he been identified with that aircraft over the past couple the culmination of which was a double Immelmann fol- of decades. lowed by a 5 turn spin. Well, just the instant I entered the But it isn't. spin, I said, 'Uh oh! something's not right.' Boy, that thing In case you Mustang lovers are crushed by this revela- went flat as a pancake! I'd never had an -86 spin so fast. I tion, let me first tell you what he does think of that looked out and saw the leading edge slats wide open on one airplane. side and racked (closed) on the other. I had started a re- "The P-51 is a delight to fly, but it has totally unpredict- covery as soon as I sensed a problem, but it went 6'/2 turns able spin characteristics. When it hits the stall, a wing before I could get it out . . . with not a lot of margin left. drops and it's gone. It's not an airplane you want to snap "We found that maintenance on the slat rollers had not roll or spin unless you have a lot of altitude, and I don't been up to par and had been causing the sort of condition advise it even then. I got into. The problem had never occurred on our factory "My favorite is the F-86 . . . and your next question test aircraft. The result was a redesign of the slats - with should be 'Why?'" side rollers so they could not bind up ... plus a rework of Which it was. of course. the Air Force accident records to remove 'pilot error' in "Jack, of all the airplanes I've flown, it's the most the instances where the slat problem had been the cause. honest bird in the bunch. When I say 'honest', I mean I personally went through the files with the Air Force at predictable ... forgiving. Near the stall, it begins to shake, Norton AFB to accomplish this. it 'talks' to you, and when it actually begins to stall, the "Properly maintained, however, the F-86 was just a nose just nods up and down. If you can believe it, I would tremendous airplane . . . and my all-time favorite," spin that airplane in the traffic pattern, it was so predict- able. I could spin it 25 turns . . . from high altitude, of Postscript course . . . and recover on whatever heading you would That ended our tape recording session. Bob had been want - just like that. Absolutely predictable, every time. a most cordial host and had been extremely patient and "On the demonstration tours I used to make in the cooperative as we explored the various areas you've read airplane, I would come in over the airport at traffic pattern about the past two months. It was very obvious to me, altitude at a real high speed, pull it up into a loop and however, that in our couple of hours of taping, we were when I was slowing down at the top, would get the gear merely scratching the surface of this remarkable pilot's and flaps out. Then, while I was still upside down, I'd push incredible career. I asked him if he ever intended to write into a spin. I'd let it spin a turn and a half, recover and a book or work with authors who would produce the Bob land . . . can you imagine that? That's how predictable it Hoover story. He has been approached by at least a couple was. of very notable writers . . . but the problem is finding the "Now, oddly enough, the military had a lot of spin time to do the interviews that would be necessary. At 61, accidents in the early models. We thought it was a pilot Bob hasn't even thought about slowing down and won't. confidence problem and I was sent out to demonstrate what I'm certain, for a long time to come. Someday, I hope he a safe airplane it really was. I was at a fighter base in can set aside a few of the off-season winter months to work Boise, ID and flew a demonstration in one of their aircraft, with an Ernie Gann or Martin Caiden or whomever, be- (Photo by Howard Levy) cause his is a story that needs to be told. The , Bob Hoover's favorite airplane ... the F-86! And you thought it test pilot and, to a degree, pilot. . . Bob has been was going to be the P-51, right? This particular airplane is the all three . . . are among the last of the individual heroes F-86A in which Maj. Richard Johnson attempted to set a world's we have in our increasingly pluralistic world society. They speed record during the National Air Races at Cleveland in 1948. manifest standards of personal initiative, courage and A similar A Model with an experimental powered stabilator gave excellence that mankind could use a lot more of. Bob Hoover his hairiest ride in an airplane.

SPORT AVIATION 47