Aero Club of Southern California Recognizes Legendary Pilot

Bob Hoover to Receive 2009 Howard Hughes Memorial Award
LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--
Robert A. "Bob" Hoover, World War II fighter hero, postwar U. S. Air Force and
civilian test pilot, and for many years a popular air show star, has been chosen
by the Aero Club of Southern California to be the 31st recipient of its Howard
Hughes Memorial Award.

The annual award, to be presented at a banquet in Los Angeles on Feb. 4, 2010,
recognizes aerospace leaders who have made significant contributions to the
advancement of aviation and space technology, said Aero Club president Nissen
Davis.

"Hoover`s exciting demonstration flights at air shows around the world inspired
countless thousands to take an interest in aircraft and aviation," said Davis.

Hoover worked at a grocery store in Nashville, Tennessee to pay for flying
lessons in the 1930s before enlisting in the National Guard. During the war he
was sent to North Africa, to flight test fighters assembled there, before being
assigned to the Spitfire-equipped 52nd Fighter Group in Sicily. On his 59th
mission, his malfunctioning aircraft was shot down and he was taken prisoner.
After 16 months in a German POW camp, he escaped, stole a Focke-Wulf FW 190
fighter from a German airfield and flew to freedom.

After the war he was assigned to flight test duty and became Chuck Yeager`s
back-up pilot for the Bell X-1 rocket plane, which, in 1947, became the first
aircraft to exceed the speed of sound.

Hoover left the USAF in 1948 and became a test/demonstration pilot for North
American Aviation (which later became North American Rockwell) where he went on
bombing missions with the F-86 Sabrejet over Korea.

In the 1960s he began demonstrating one of his company`s most famous products,
the P-51 Mustang fighter, at air shows around the country. He is best known for
his demonstrations of the twin piston-engine business aircraft, the Aero
Commander. To show the plane`s strength, he would roll and loop it, with a grand
finale that involved shutting down both engines and executing a loop and an
eight-point slow roll before making a "dead stick" landing.

Following an accident when both of his piston engines shut down on take-off due
to a refueler putting jet fuel in his tank instead of aviation gas, Hoover
invented a nozzle for use on jet fuel pumps that insured that such mix-ups could
not occur.

Throughout his career, he flew 300 different types of aircraft.

Hoover`s awards include the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Soldier`s Medal for
Valor, the Air Medal with Clusters, the Purple Heart and France`s Croix de
Guerre.

With the Howard Hughes Memorial Award, Hoover will join a list of previous
honorees that includes Jack Northrop, Jimmy Doolittle, Pat Hyland, Bob Six,
Kelly Johnson, Chuck Yeager, Ed Heinemann, Barry Goldwater Sr., Pete Conrad,
Allen Paulson, Si Ramo, Jack Real, Ben Rich, Clif Moore, Lee Atwood, Harry
Wetzel, Bobbi Trout, Tom Jones, Allen Puckett, Paul B. MacCready, John
Brizendine, Willis Hawkins, Sam Iacobellis, Kent Kresa, Neil Armstrong, Frank
Robinson, Burt Rutan, Eileen Collins, James Albaugh and Ron Sugar.

Founded in 1925, the Aero Club of Southern California, also known as the
Southern California Aeronautic Association, increases public awareness of the
new and expanding uses of aviation, awards scholarships to students pursuing
careers in aviation and aerospace, and is credited with saving the famed Hughes
HK-1 Flying Boat, now the centerpiece of the Evergreen Aviation Museum in
McMinnville, Ore.

For further information, please go to www.aeroclubsocal.org.

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For Aero Club of Southern California
Jim Ragsdale, 949-721-1952
Ragsdale33@gmail.com

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