My Flying News

I recently visited the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. I had been meaning to go for years and years. You can view my photos and general comments about the museum here.

Once I read that Bob Hoover’s Shrike Commander was added to the collection, my desire to go grew. Bob Hoover was an aviation legend, especially among pilots. He has been a hero of mine since reading his book “Forever Flying: Fifty Years of High-flying Adventures, From Barnstorming in Prop Planes to Dogfighting Germans to Testing Supersonic Jets, An Autobiography.”

He was a veteran World War 2 pilot, prisoner of war, test pilot, and airshow pilot. He was also a humble man.

There are many extraordinary Bob Hoover stories. Two of the most famous ones are while demonstrating the Sabre business jet to VIPs; he did a barrel roll while pouring a glass of iced tea. As an airshow pilot, he was known for turning off his engines and continuing his performance using energy management techniques. You can find clips of both of these on YouTube.

While standing in the museum looking at his statue, I was reminded of my favorite Bob Hoover story. The story comes from his book.

He was shot down and became a German prisoner of war. Towards the end of the war, he escaped from prison. On the run with other prisoners, he came across a German airfield.

He stole a German aircraft and flew back to Holland. The book explains that he didn’t even taxi out but rather just took off straight out of the hangar. Worrying that the Allies would shoot him down as he was flying a German aircraft, he landed in a field once he was sure he was over friendly territory.

What does any of this have to do with Tom Cruise and Top Gun Maverick?

(Spoiler alert.) A scene in the Top Gun Maverick movie is very similar to Bob Hoover’s escape from Germany. I can’t be the only pilot who watched Top Gun Maverick and thought of the Bob Hoover story from his book.

After being shot down, Maverick steals an enemy F14. He performs a daring takeoff and flies the enemy aircraft back to base (with some action along the way.)

I am confident that this scene is borrowed from Bob Hoover. Tom Cruise has stated that he wanted his movie to be his homage to aviation.

There is no better man or story to page homage to than Bob Hoover.