MovieChat Forums > The Right Stuff (1984) Discussion > The Best Pilot Ever...

The Best Pilot Ever...

posted 8 years ago by dannieboy20906
12 replies | jump to latest

was not featured in this movie. I'm sure that many people, maybe all have their own opinion. In my opinion the top five would be:

1) James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle
First cross country (United States) Flight in under 24 hours 1922
M.S. Aeronautical Engineering, MIT 1924, Sc.D., MIT 1925, Schneider Trophy, 1925
Mackay Trophy, 1926, first outside loop, 1927, first take-off, fly around field,
and land on instruments alone, flying blind under a hood over the cockpit,
Harmon Trophy, 1929, Bendix Trophy 1931, Thompson Trophy 1932 - only pilot of
Gee Bee R-1 to fly it and not crash, led the "Doolittle Raid" on Tokyo, April
1942, took command of Eighth Air Force and changed fighter tactics from close
escort to search and destroy, resulting in the rapid destruction of the
Luftwaffe. No one has done as much in the history of aviation and few are even
in the same ball park.

2) Art Scholl
B.S. Aeronautical Sciences, CSU San Jose, M.S. Aeronautical Sciences CSU LA,
FAA Airline Transport Rating, fixed wing, rotary wing, and glider certifications.
FAA Powerplant and Airframe Mechanic ratings plus FAA Inspector rating,
designed and modified two DeHaviland Chipmunks into aerobatic planes. The only
pilot who could routinely put an airplane into a flat spin and recover.

3) Chuck Yeager
He was in the movie.

4) Robert A. "Bob" Hoover
Test pilot for USAF, number two pilot in Bell X-1 program, he was Chuck
Yeager's chase pilot and backup. Went on to be Chief Test Pilot for North
American Aviation. Went to airshows around the U.S. for thirty years in his
P-51 Mustang and Shrike Commander demonstrating the unbelievable, including
pouring a glass of iced tea on his aircraft dashboard while performing a barrel
roll

5) Hans Joachim Marseille
Perfected the deflection shot. Preferred to dogfight at low speeds, even to the
point of using his flaps. Would fly between enemy (allied) fighters such as
P-40's, Hurricanes, and Spitfires when they assumed a Lufberry Circle in
defense. Shot down a total of 152 aircraft (including 17 in one day) before
dying in an attempt to bail out of his stricken Bf-109.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

[–] wwestar 8 years ago

Has to be Eric Brown. The greatest ever. Check him out on Wikipedia.

[–] nickm2 8 years ago

Brown had probably flown more prop warplanes than anybody else. Most interesting factoid of all-Brown's favorite WW2 plane & HIS vote for the best plane of WW2 is the FW-190. He thought it so well balanced & versatile, he just loved the thing.

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

[–] PenTheater 8 years ago

Glenn Curtiss

Ephemeron.

[–] tmf_scipio 8 years ago

Good list.

I'd add Werner Voss and Manfred von Richthofen.

Hitler! C'mon, I'll buy you a glass of lemonade.

[–] TD2112 8 years ago

When I watch the movie I always felt that had Cooper not been interrupted by the reporter getting jostled he was going to say Chuck Yeager.

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

That's probably correct. I think that was the implication intended by the director. I don't remember if Gordo was so quoted by Tom Wolfe in the book. However, I was discussing actual pilots who have a stronger resume than Chuck Yeager. Charles Yeager was certainly a good pilot, but there are several others who have done more with airplanes than he has. Chief among them is Jimmy Doolittle.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 2 years ago

The reporter’s question was, “Who’s the best pilot YOU ever SAW?” He was asking for a a first-person account, not for a history lesson.

Sheesh. People online just do not listen or read carefully.

[–] ATG6 (3000) 5 years ago

John Glenn (who knew a thing or two about flight) said it was the baseball player Ted Williams, who flew as his wingman in the Korean War.

From Wikipedia:

On February 16, 1953, Williams, flying as the wingman for John Glenn (later astronaut then U.S. Senator), was part of a 35-plane raid against a tank and infantry training school just south of Pyongyang, North Korea. During the mission, a piece of flak knocked out his hydraulics and electrical systems, causing Williams to have to "limp" his plane back to K-13 air base, a U.S. Air Force airfield close to the front lines. The plane burst into flames soon after he landed. For his actions of this day, he was awarded the Air Medal.

Williams flew 39 combat missions in Korea, earning the Air Medal with two Gold Stars in lieu of second and third awards,

[–] ATG6 (3000) 5 years ago

More on Williams' skill in pilot training (Wikipedia on Ted Williams):

Williams was talented as a pilot, and so enjoyed it that he had to be ordered by the Navy to leave training to personally accept his American League 1942 Major League Baseball Triple Crown.[141] Williams' Red Sox teammate, Johnny Pesky, who went into the same aviation training program, said this about Williams: "He mastered intricate problems in fifteen minutes which took the average cadet an hour, and half of the other cadets there were college grads." Pesky again described Williams' acumen in the advance training, for which Pesky personally did not qualify: "I heard Ted literally tore the sleeve target to shreds with his angle dives. He'd shoot from wingovers, zooms, and barrel rolls, and after a few passes the sleeve was ribbons. At any rate, I know he broke the all-time record for hits." Ted went to Jacksonville for a course in aerial gunnery, the combat pilot's payoff test, and broke all the records in reflexes, coordination, and visual-reaction time. "From what I heard. Ted could make a plane and its six 'pianos' (machine guns) play like a symphony orchestra", Pesky says. "From what they said, his reflexes, coordination, and visual reaction made him a built-in part of the machine."

[–] ebhaynz (3688) 5 years ago

Wow, I never knew Ted Williams was that good of a pilot. I'm sure he would've been the best ever if he would've flown dozens and dozens of different aircraft like Chuck did over six or more decades.

[–] ebhaynz (3688) 5 years ago

I have to go with Yeager being #1. He has 17,000 freaking hours in over 200 different military aircraft. He was shot down as a tail end charlie in WWII and hiked over the snow covered Spanish Pyrenee mountains while carrying his badly wounded buddy to make it back to freedom. The rules were he was NOT to fly in the War again but he fought it all the way up to Ike and won to dogfight another day. Yeager was the first to shoot down a jet fighter. I repeat, Yeager was the FIRST pilot ever to shoot down a jet fighter. He broke speed records in the X-1 and X-2 and many other jet aircraft. He was the first American ever to pilot a captured Soviet Mig fighter. He survived 3 bailouts. During one bailout HIS FACE CAUGHT ON FIRE! and he put the fire out and after extensive surgery flew again. Yeager flew the FASTEST EVER in a fixed wing aircraft. that's right, 60 years later he still holds that record.
Oh yeah, Yeager also was the FIRST HUMAN EVER to break the speed of sound in an X-1 EXPERIMENTAL jet aircraft. He broke his ribs the night before but he did it anyway.
I could go on and on about Yeager's exploits and records in hundreds of different prop and jet aircraft but it would take me all night and I'd still leave out a lot.
Put simply, Charles E. Yeager is the greatest pilot ever. If they made a Mt. Rushmore for pilots they'd put Yeager's face on 3 side of the mountain and maybe save room for someone else to take #4.
Side Note 1: During the first few seconds of his first flight of the Bell X-1 Yeager did a barrel roll.
Side Note 2: During one test flight, after being dropped from the mother-ship, Yeager's Bell X-1 had zero power. With all that fuel he was certain to drill a hole in the desert. Yeager miraculously dumped enough fuel to live to fly another day!

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Actually, one of the subtler points of the book was that the Best Pilot Ever wouldn't want to be a Mercury astronaut, as there was no piloting involved in the capsule spacecraft.

The guys who signed up for the Mercury program were top pilots but not the kind of G.O.A.T. pilots who lived for hot aircraft, the guys who signed up for the Mercury program weren't quite at the top of their field, and were smart enough to realize that there was a new field opening up where they *could* jump right to the top. And they were ambitious enough to go for it.