REMINISCING with BOB HOOVER Part II
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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 Los Angeles 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! homa numbe r efo gianf o r t aerospace companiesf o e on , The airplane pitched straight up ... and Bob, acting which used to be North American Aviation. 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 spin ... 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 syan 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 test pilot, 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.