5 min read

As a sixteen year old in New Jersey, I was fortunate to attend a “prep” high school and more fortunate to have a roommate (Jeff) that year whose father was a part of the aviation community both as a pilot, an FBO, and a distributor of the Falcon Jet in the United States. I was an ardent aviation fan and budding student pilot.

Jeff’s dad stopped by the school one day and invited his son and me to go with him to the Reading Air Show for the afternoon, flying there in, and piloted by, one of his friend’s Aero Commanders. The school gave us permission and off we went.

Bob Hoover's Shrike

Bob Hoover’s famous Shrike Commander.

We flew out of Mercer County (Trenton) Airport. The flight to Reading was exciting for me as was anything that got me in the air, but was really a routine hop the short distance from TTN to RDG. After landing, we were led to a parking space on the grass among the many visiting aircraft and stepped out to the sounds of sirens and a rush of people to a nearby vantage point. We followed and saw a Falcon Jet lying on the grass near the active like a big bird with a broken leg. The main gear had collapsed on landing and she’d slid down and off the runway on her belly. There was no fire or injury, but it was a heck of a way to start my first visit to an airshow.

Later I was thrilled to watch my first (of many) “Bob” Hoover P-51 routines that included his amazing dead stick loop, followed immediately by another (“dropping” his landing gear at the top while inverted!), approach, landing and perfect energy-managed roll to a stop in front of the crowd. We loudly showed our appreciation.

We were astounded when he jumped out of the P-51, boarded the green and white Shrike sitting next to the Mustang, fired it up and took off to duplicate the P-51 routine to the letter! It was amazing (I’m running out of superlatives!) to see him doing the same maneuvers in a business piston twin that he had in the Mustang (watch the video here). Who knew it could perform that well?

On one powered loop, I was concerned that he was too close to the ground to “make it” and when he pulled up at the bottom he was so close to the runway that I saw him “glance” or skip off the runway, leaving a puff off white “smoke” at the point of impact. I turned to Jeff and his father and said, “He just skipped it off the runway!” They replied that I was wrong, that it was impossible, he would have crashed, you can’t do that and keep flying, and on and on.

Hoover continued and finished the routine without any disruption including doing many maneuvers with one prop feathered (like rolling into the dead engine!) and the unbelievable, both props feathered dead stick routine like in the P-51. Each time he flew by and turned the Shrike’s belly towards the crowd there was a perfect tear-drop shaped aluminum area on the belly surrounded by the airplane’s white paint. It was so perfect it looked like the paint job. I called this my “evidence;” my companions  continued to pooh-pooh my assertion.

Several years later in the mid-1970s, I attended an “Orgy of Flight” two-day, twelve-hours-a-day aviation film festival at the old Rheem, California, theater in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many short and not so short films all about flying were shown and many of them were narrated live by pilots and others involved in aviation.

One of the presenters was Bob Hoover, showing a film of his flight in, I believe, a Republic A-10 Warthog (it might have been the OV-10 Bronco that was designed by North American which Hoover worked for at the time which one would think he’d flown before). The flight took place at the Paris Air Show and he essentially did everything he did in his P-51. He took questions after and we were amazed when asked how many hours he had in the A-10 before this air show flight and he said “none,” it was his first flight in the airplane, that he’d sat in the cockpit for about an hour familiarizing himself with the panel and controls before flying.

Bob Hoover

Not one to listen to the sales guys.

After the presentation, there was a break and Hoover was taking more questions in the lobby and I approached him and mustered the courage to ask if he had really skipped the Shrike off the runway at Reading. We were alone in that moment and he gave me a hard, thoughtful look and asked, “You were there, were you?” I exclaimed, “You DID?” and he said, “Yes.” The questions poured out of my mouth: How come you didn’t crash? How did the plane hold together? What happened to the airplane; was it badly damaged?

He patiently (and quietly) explained that yes, he did skip the Shrike off the runway, he was too low, that he kept going because everything seemed to be alright with the airplane so why not keep going? The airplane was towed to the hangar after the show and he said when he inspected the belly where I’d seen the “new paint job,” he poked his finger through the aluminum it had been “sanded” so thin. He said it was a very strong airplane and that was why he kept going; he had a lot of faith in its strength and capabilities–the flights were sales demonstration flights after all!

As to my question of how such an accomplished, experienced and precise pilot could have such a thing happen, he said that the day before, North American sales guys had commented that the Shrike show wasn’t exciting enough and could he do it a bit lower so he did. He said that was the last time he ever listened to sales guys giving flying advice!

Finally, he said they took the wings off the aircraft, loaded it on a truck, took it back to the factory in Texas, and rebuilt it.

A most memorable experience!

Cragg Utman
Latest posts by Cragg Utman (see all)
16 replies
  1. Rick
    Rick says:

    Even the best make mistakes. Listening to sales guys as a demo pilot (or a customer) can lead to some “interesting” situations.

  2. Dan Trachsel
    Dan Trachsel says:

    One of my favorite memories is seeing Hoover fly…and later the same day, my son get his autograph.

  3. tony J
    tony J says:

    Met him several times at various shows,what a great,nice guy.Never been to many air show pilots that
    had the talent he has.I sugest reading a book about him,Forever flying.

  4. Chris G
    Chris G says:

    No finer, genuine, or more professional an individual to ever be called “pilot.” Thanks, Bob.

  5. Gary Kendall
    Gary Kendall says:

    I had the extreme pleasure to watch “Bob” Hoover at Deer Valley in Phoenix sometime in the late 60’s I’m guessing, when he caught the runway with the prop on the P-51. Sounded like a machine gun, but he finished the routine. Bob Hoover,Art Scholl, Jimmy Franklin. Three of the best in my opinion.

  6. Amy Snodgrass
    Amy Snodgrass says:

    I was saddened to learn of Mr. Hoover’s passing this morning. Back in the 1980’s, my dad and Godfather (Norm Crabtree) were narrating air shows. One day at Marysville, OH the yellow P-51 had an issue and had to go behind some trees. He came out and asked if anyone had any binoculars, as he wasn’t reading three green on his instrument panel. My dad had a super long camera lens and could see his gear was down, but he had a small puff of fire on his wing. Bob called for dry chemical. The closer he got to landing, the bigger that puff became. He landed, got the plane over into the grass (off the runway), popped the canopy back and got out on the other side. The wing melted in the down position. He still had his Shrike performance to go and dad told him, “we’ll scratch you from that today” and Bob replied ‘no, please. Just move me down a few spaces and I’ll be good to go’. The man was truly made of steel. I will miss him, along with the others… Norm Crabtree, Paul Tibbets, Jimmy Doolittle, Harold Johnson.

  7. Gary Grasma
    Gary Grasma says:

    It was in the early 70’s when I was accumulating my tickets and acquired my multi and part 135 in an Aero Commander 500. What a great airplane and the big rudder make it handle very well with one out. I often thought of Bob Hoovers performance in the Shrike that I had the honor to watch at a small airport. What a Great man and a natural born pilot. We will miss him…….

  8. Steve Janss
    Steve Janss says:

    The only time I watched Bob Hoover perform, he stopped both engines of his Shrike Commander in level flight 50 feet above the runway, feathered them, performed an engine-out loop, restarted both engines on the downward part of the loop, and was back under powered flight as he rolled out.

    Bob Hoover was indeed an outstanding stick and rudder man. Even so, his legacy is more about his mastery of the aircraft’s systems and integrating himself within them.

    He was indeed an incredibly accomplished aviator and will be sorely missed.

  9. RH
    RH says:

    Charming guy, and spectacular pilot (one of the greatest thrills of my aviation life was shaking his hand).

    But his aerial demonstrations of the Aero Commander were apparently intended to mask its reputation as a dangerous dog in engine-out situations, in the hands of normal pilots.

    Airshow stunts and anecdotal accounts notwithstanding, the Aero Commander piston/prop twins had — by far — highest single-engine crash rate of any light twin in production in the early/mid-1970s, according to a study by the National Transportation Safety Board.

    And performing dangerous stunts to sell Aero Commanders was an arguably questionable deed — tempting (or even pressuring) competitors to do the same with their aircraft.

    A particularly memorable example was the demo pilot of a Partenavia Victor (the “poor man’s Aero Commander”) who tried to stunt his plane at a Texas airshow, and pulled the wings off in front of the crowd, including his wife.

    Following that, Flying Magazine ran an editorial criticizing the stunting of ‘business aircraft” for show. They didn’t name Hoover, but it was obviously aimed at him.

    Some time later, after Hoover had expanded his show to include stunting his company’s Saberliner jets, the executives of Wichita-based Executive Aircraft — the nation’s principal used-Saberliner dealer at the time — tried to stunt the Saberliner, and perished with their passenger (a sales prospect, as i recall). One wonders where they got that idea.

    While i’m glad I got to see Hoover stunt both aircraft, and consider those memories among my most treasured, they come with mixed emotions.

  10. Kent Ewing
    Kent Ewing says:

    First met Bob as our USNTPS Class Host at North American…toured the factory, saw the Shuttle being built, saw a B-1 Bomber being modified for conventional weaponry!! Next time was at Reno where he did his air show routine in 4..yes 4 North American airplanes…the Shrike, his Mustang, a borrowed Canadian F86, and the OV-10 Bronco…I knew then I was watching the best stick and throttle man in the world. Later attended his 90th birthday celebration and was fortunate to be in the DVD “Flying the Feathered Edge”…a wonderful documentary of this marvelous human being. RIP.

  11. Amy S
    Amy S says:

    My father was running the radios and Godfather was announcing Marysville, Ohio one year in the mid to late 80s. Bob was in Ole Yeller and had his own announcer. Told his guy he had to go check something out behind the trees. When he came around you could see his right wing was on fire. He needed someone to confirm he had 3 down. My dad grabbed his long lens on his camera and verified he did. Bob told them to bring the dry chemical. Not only did he land it, he pulled it off the runway into the grass so the runway wasn’t ruined and the show could continue. He popped the canopy, actually grabbed a few things and got out the other side like nothing happened. It welded the wing down due to the fire. P-51 had to be trucked down to Texas to fix.

    Dad ran the schedule and he went over and told him he take him off for the day (he was to run the Shrike commander next). Bob asked, “could you just move me down the roster a few spots? Still ready to fly.” Pure class and professionalism every time we saw him.

    We were so lucky to be around famous and more not-famous pilots. Not only great pilots, but great people.

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