Remembering aviators who died in 2019

The poem I Dream of Eagles by Patrick J. Phillips was dedicated to the crew of the space shuttle Challenger and can be a fitting tribute for all aviators who look to the sky for their lifelong inspiration. “I dreamt I saw an eagle fall, and when he landed, heard him call, ‘Weep not for me, for I’m a flyer, my dreaming calls me ever higher.’”

WASP Millie Young

WASP member Millicent Young was enthralled by aviation after a pilot who landed on the family’s farm admonished the 6-year-old not to touch his aircraft. “That was the wrong thing to say to her,” recalled her son Bill, who added that the Nebraska farm girl went on to fly target-towing North American AT–6 Texans during World War II. Young, known to her family and friends as Millie, died January 12 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at age 96, the Associated Press reported.

Capt. Rosemary Mariner, first female U.S. Navy fighter pilot

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Rosemary Mariner, who broke through the gender barrier in the late 1970s, became the military service’s first female jet fighter pilot. Mariner’s aviation fascination began when she was a child as she viewed aircraft leaving and returning to San Diego’s Naval Air Station Miramar. She died January 24 at age 65.

Award-winning aviation writer Mary Grady

Award-winning aviation writer, pilot, and educator Mary Jane Grady flew hot air balloons and airplanes, sailed on a research vessel, and taught geography for her beloved Rhode Island College. The longtime AVweb writer died March 12 at her home in Warwick, Rhode Island. The aviation publication remembered Grady as “one of AVweb’s longest-serving, most dedicated and respected contributing editors” and a founding member of the publication.

Tuskegee Airman Robert McDaniel

Robert T. McDaniel, a member of the elite black aviators known as the Tuskegee Airmen, died March 19 at age 96, in Fort Worth, Texas. McDaniel spoke at a reception during a screening of the 2012 film Red Tails, which documented the challenges the all-black squadron faced during World War II. “There were no blacks at all in the Air Corps. None. Didn’t want them there. They said, ‘They don’t have the dexterity to work these planes,’” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Innovator aircraft designer Richard Hogan

Richard Hogan, the 63-year-old founder of Commuter Craft, died March 23 in an aircraft accident in northern Georgia. He was flying the company’s two-person Innovator kitplane and had plans to bring new people into aviation using the scalable design.

‘Flying Grandma’ Marie McMillan

Pilot Marie McMillan, who posted hundreds of aviation records and was affectionately called the “Flying Grandma” later in life, died March 24 at age 92 in Las Vegas. McMillan is recognized by the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame at McCarran International Airport, where the aviatrix was hailed as a “true pioneer” of aviation. The Hall of Fame display paid homage to McMillan’s “grace, elegance, humility, intelligence, and determination.” She set her first speed record during a flight from Fresno, California, to Las Vegas on the anniversary of powered flight in 1978. McMillan went on to set a total of 328 U.S. national records and 328 international or world records—for a grand total of 656.

Last living Doolittle Tokyo Raider Dick Cole

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Richard Cole, who served as Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot as they flew the first North American B–25 Mitchell bomber off the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, to bomb Tokyo during World War II, died April 9 at the age of 103. Cole was the last living Doolittle Tokyo Raider.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, on September 7, 1915, Cole was commissioned into the military on November 22, 1940. He volunteered for a secret mission following the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor and then trained for short-field takeoffs in B–25s at Eglin Field in Florida—much shorter than bombers had ever done. It wasn’t until Cole and 79 other crewmembers, along with thousands of U.S. Navy personnel, boarded the USS Hornet that they learned of their dangerous mission—launching bombers off an aircraft carrier to attack Japan’s mainland. Cole worked to keep the events of World War II on the minds of younger generations through appearances at airshows and other events.

Oregon aviator, former AOPA representative Ray Costello

Oregon Aviation Hall of Fame inductee, decorated war pilot, and aviation planning visionary Ray Costello died March 24 at age 98. An Oregon Aviation Historical Society biography noted that the career U.S. Air Force officer served during three wars: World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He participated in the 1948 to 1949 Berlin Airlift, trained in the first Air Force rescue helicopters, and established a general aviation systems plan “that became the model funded and implemented by the FAA.” Costello was the AOPA Western Region Representative for 16 years and was hailed as a tireless advocate for GA by his friends and colleagues.

Aviation pioneer Jerrie Cobb

Groundbreaking female aviator Geraldyn “Jerrie” Cobb, the first of the skilled female pilots known as First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs), died March 18 at age 88 in Florida. She earned her private pilot certificate at age 16, ferried World War II aircraft overseas at age 21, and joined NASA at age 28. Cobb set world records for speed, altitude, and distance and earned accolades for flight skills, and her duty to the space agency. Later in life, the Wichita Falls, Texas, native’s humanitarian flights to under served South American jungle villages earned her a 1981 Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

Pilot and astronaut Owen Garriott

GA pilot, astronaut, and longtime amateur radio aficionado Owen Garriott, who NASA saluted as “the first to participate in amateur radio from space,” died April 15 in his Huntsville, Alabama, home at age 88. Garriott was one of the first six scientist-astronauts selected by NASA and tasted outer space aboard a record-breaking 60-day Skylab 3 flight in 1973. The journey set early marks for the most time in space and allowed NASA to analyze the effects of extended weightlessness on humans. In 2017, the avid GA pilot jumped at the opportunity to support the AOPA Foundation during a return to Kennedy Space Center. He and his son Richard, who tasted private space travel aboard the International Space Station, flew a North American P–51 Mustang to a landing at the 15,000-foot-long Florida runway that the space shuttle Discovery used during its last mission flight.

Aircraft collector Connie Edwards

Irascible, opinionated, and proudly unrefined, Wilson Connell “Connie” Edwards, 85, died May 3 in his native Texas. Edwards learned to fly as a teen and later spent decades performing secretive contract flying for government agencies in the 1950s and 1960s, much of it in Central and South America. He was the aerial coordinator for the 1969 movie Battle of Britain and performed much of the on-camera flying in Spitfires, Hurricanes, and Spanish Buchons painted as Messerschmitt 109s. In the 1950s, he bought dozens of war surplus P–51 Mustangs and other iconic aircraft for a small fraction of their later worth and took airplanes as payment for much of his movie work. He was a founder of the Commemorative Air Force (then the Confederate Air Force) but had a bitter falling out with the Dallas-based organization. “He was always forward-looking and positive,” remembered Terry Adams, a friend and fellow warbird pilot.

Garmin cofounder Gary Burrell

Gary Burrell, an aviation pioneer who developed the first successful navigation/communications product for GA and would go on to co-found avionics powerhouse Garmin, died June 12 at age 81. Burrell and a colleague at AlliedSignal, Min Kao, founded Garmin in 1989 “with the vision of creating products powered by an emerging technology known as the Global Positioning System, or GPS,” Garmin International wrote in a news release following Burrell’s death. “Thirty years later, Garmin has grown from a handful of engineers into a global location and communication product powerhouse with more than 13,000 associates in 60 offices around the world. Of his many accomplishments, Gary was most proud of the jobs he helped create.”

Tuskegee Airman Robert Friend

Robert J. Friend, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew 142 World War II combat missions and later directed a secret government program to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena, died June 21 in Long Beach, California, at age 99. Friend, who would rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel, flew North American P–51 Mustang and Republic P–47 Thunderbolt fighters in Europe with the 322nd Fighter Group. The member of the group who collectively received a Congressional Gold Medal later led the secret government investigation of UFOs known as Project Blue Book.

WASP Dorothy Olsen

Dorothy Olsen, one of the last surviving members of the WASP, died July 23, in Washington, at the age of 103. The Portland, Oregon, dance instructor’s aviation aspirations began at a young age and were fueled by books describing World War I flying aces. Olsen earned her private pilot certificate when she was in her 20s and went on to join an elite group of female pilots supporting the World War II effort. She was a self-described daredevil who had a penchant for flying high-performance military aircraft. One of her favorite memories was flying a P–38 at night over Texas and Arizona to big-band music. “It was the closest to heaven I have ever been,” The Washington Post reported in an obituary. When she saw the runway lights at Coolidge Army Airfield, she said she was so excited that she “came in low and buzzed the base before landing” and inadvertently woke up fellow service personnel. The base commander was not pleased.

Al Haynes, United Flight 232 pilot

Al Haynes, who was credited for saving the lives of nearly 200 people on United Airlines Flight 232 by guiding the crippled passenger jet into a crash landing at an Iowa airport in 1989, died August 25 at age 87 in Seattle. Aviation experts have pointed to the action by Haynes and his crew as a tremendous example of cockpit resource management. The pilots, including an off-duty pilot riding aboard the airliner as a passenger, used differential thrust to maneuver the damaged airliner when hydraulic flight control lines were severed. The New York Times noted that 112 people died because of the crash, “but the fact that anybody survived is viewed as miraculous.” Haynes attended, presented, or was recognized during numerous general, business, and commercial aviation-related seminars and events.

B–17 pilot Ernest McCauley

Warbird pilot Ernest "Mac" McCauley, 75, recognized as one of the most experienced Boeing B–17 pilots in the country, died October 2 in a Connecticut crash that claimed the lives of seven as he attempted an emergency landing in the Collings Foundation’s Flying Fortress Nine-O-Nine at Bradley International Airport. Six passengers and one person on the ground sustained injuries when the vintage bomber landed short of Runway 6, struck an approach light stanchion, and veered across the grass to a final impact.

Aviation industry writer Patricia Luebke

Patricia Luebke, who spent more than 50 years writing and marketing for aviation publications and organizations— including AOPA— died November 22. Luebke was remembered by friends and colleagues as an inspiring and trailblazing communicator. Women in Aviation's Kelly Murphy called her "an especially dedicated friend, with words of encouragement, kindness, clever humor, and above all else, truth." Luebke’s work included promoting Take Your Daughter to Conference, which became the organization’s Girls in Aviation Day. Luebke joined Flying magazine in 1974 and rose to the rank of vice president for the firm’s publishing company. In the last 20 years she worked as a contract writer, editor, and marketing consultant for Avionics News, Air Facts published by Sporty’s Pilot Shop, Lightspeed Aviation, Aspen Avionics, and others, AIN reported.

Francesco Volpi, one of the oldest active pilots

Francesco Volpi, a decorated Italian Air Force pilot who earned his military pilot certificate at age 21 and went on to count 84 years of active flying, died on November 19 at age 105. Volpi was believed to be one of the oldest active pilots in the world, the Italian news site Corriere Della Sera reported. The retired World War II airman was born in 1914, studied law, flew 236 missions during assignments with the 246th Special Air Services, and earned a bronze medal for valor. After the war he served in various legal roles, directed a flight school, and taught mountain flying. He was also credited for helping design and construct Gianni Caproni Airport in northeast Italy, near the city of Mattarello, to honor the Caproni aircraft company—a European general and military aircraft manufacturer active during aviation’s Golden Age. When he renewed his airman certificate in 2014 at age 100, Volpi chose to fly a Caproni Ca.100 replica similar to the aircraft in which he earned his wings in 1935.

Longtime NBAA podcaster and Atlanta newshound Pete Combs

Pete Combs, 60, the anchor of the National Business Aviation Association Flight Plan podcast and a familiar voice to millions of WSB radio listeners in Atlanta, died December 12. The seasoned reporter was often first at the scene of breaking news where he built a following of loyal listeners on Cox Media’s flagship AM and FM radio stations. Newsroom colleagues lauded Combs for his persistence with a story and for his mentorship, while aviators remembered him for his work during the annual NBAA convention and exhibition. NBAA had earlier bestowed the association’s Silver Scarf Award to the private pilot and saluted Combs during a December 16 podcast. “Buddy, we are going to miss you,” said podcast host Rob Finfrock.