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From the Starfighter to the <i>Enterprise NCC-1701-D</i>

Flying fast aircraft is like "meditation" for actor Michael Dorn.

Flying fast aircraft is like "meditation" for actor Michael Dorn. [Credit: Jeff Berlin]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Michael Dorn, iconic for his role as Lt. Cmdr. Worf in Star Trek, independently developed the character's gruff persona, contrasting him with the cheerful cast, despite enduring a challenging and lengthy prosthetic makeup process for the part.
  • Beyond acting, Dorn is an avid pilot with a deep passion for speed, having owned and flown numerous former military fighter jets, which he considers a meditative escape.
  • Dorn's ultimate aviation goal is to acquire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, and he prioritizes the exhilaration and control of flying fast jets over the passive experience and risks of commercial space travel.
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From the late 1980s through the 1990s, Klingon Lt. Cmdr. Worf was one of the most visible characters on the popular TV shows Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Actor and pilot Michael Dorn, who was cast as Worf, made the character his own and ended up appearing in 276 episodes, the most of any other cast member in the Star Trek franchise’s history.

To Dorn, morphing into Worf each day was a lengthy process because of the amount of makeup and prosthetics required to bring the character to life. But when the cameras stopped rolling, it wasn’t the starship Enterprise that drew Dorn’s attention, it was a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. But there was a problem.

Dan Pimentel

Dan Pimentel is an instrument-rated private pilot and former airplane owner who has been flying since 1996. As an aviation journalist and photographer, he has covered all aspects of the general and business aviation communities for a long list of major aviation magazines, newspapers and websites. He has never met a flying machine that he didn’t like, and has written about his love of aviation for years on his Airplanista blog. For 10 years until 2019, he hosted the popular ‘Oshbash’ social media meetup events at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.

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