Bob Hoover was awarded the Wright Brothers Memorial Award for 2014, an honor many had previously assumed he already held.
A legendary figure, Hoover was a WWII fighter pilot who famously escaped a German concentration camp by stealing a Focke-Wulf fighter.
He served as Chuck Yeager's backup and chase pilot for the first Mach 1 flight and worked at Dryden Flight Research Center.
Hoover is best known for his unparalleled airshow performances, often featuring complex aerobatics and dead-stick landings with both engines shut down.
Like everyone else, I had assumed that Bob Hoover was already a Wright Brothers Memorial award winner. Now we can say that he really is.
Yesterday the National Aeronautic Association’s selection committee voted Bob Hoover the winner for 2014, beating out a very distinguished group of nominees in the process.
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A commercial pilot, Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.
