While we see another year off, ANN would like to use this space to pay tribute to those in aerospace and aviation who will not be among us as we welcome in the New Year.

Some left us far too early; others lived long, healthy lives. But whatever the individual circumstances, we honor these folks for their courage, contributions, and prescience in the field of aerospace that bonds us all...

2 July: USAF General Howell M. Estes Jr. -- From July 1964 until he retired in August 1969, Estes was commander of the Military Air Transport Service, later known as the Military Airlift Command, during the Vietnam War. In addition to his responsibilities of supporting US forces fighting communism in the jungles of Southeast Asia, he had oversight of a global military airlift system, now known as Air Mobility Command, to include aeromedical evacuation operations, air rescue, air weather, photography and mapping services throughout the world.

13 July: WWII Ace Cook Cleland -- Born in Cleveland, OH, in December 1916, Cleland joined the Navy in 1940 -- taking his flight training at Lambert Field in Missouri, qualifying as a dive bomber pilot in Pensacola, FL. During WWII, Cleland was assigned to the USS Lexington flying a Douglas SBD Dauntless. After the war, Cleland came home and bought an airport, the former Euclid Avenue Airport in Willoughby, OH. He rechristened it Cook Cleland's Euclid Avenue Airport and opened the FBO offering flight lessons, air charter and banner towing. He later achieved his dream of winning the Thompson Trophy in the Cleveland National Air Races -- twice, in 1947 and 1949.

7 August: KTLA Anchor Hal Fishman -- A mainstay in Los Angeles-area television news for nearly 50 years, Fishman was also well-known in the southern California aviation community, and throughout the world. He shared in 12 airspeed and altitude world records, serving as crewmember onboard various jets flown by Clay Lacy. He also reported news stories from the cockpit of his personal aircraft. Interviewed by filmmaker Brian Terwilliger for the aviation documentary "One Six Right," Fishman described how aviation called to him at a young age. "As a little kid, just stand with my hands up against that fence [at Van Nuys Airport], looking out and watching the planes... and nagging my mother to let me go up in an airplane," Fishman recounted.

24 August: Bill Piper, Jr. -- Son of Piper Aircraft founder William Thomas Piper, Sr. and an accomplished aviator in his own right, Bill Piper Jr. learned to fly while working in his father's aircraft plant. He was a record-breaking pilot, and was one of the last acknowledged flying daredevils of the 1930s. Later in life, Piper Jr. headed up one of the most successful aircraft manufacturing companies in the nation, that boasted revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He was also a founding boardmember of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) in 1970, and was named Chairman of the organization three years later.

28 August: Dr. Paul MacCready -- The designer of the human-powered "Gossamer Condor," MacCready was also an internationally renowned, Caltech-trained scientist, innovator and entrepreneur, as well as founder and former chairman of the board of directors of AeroVironment, Inc. His passing occurred less than one week after the 30th anniversary of one of his most notable accomplishments -- the record-setting flight of the Gossamer Condor, that won MacCready the Kremer Prize.  He also designed and built a follow-up airplane, the Gossamer Albatross, which completed a successful crossing of the English Channel on June 12, 1979 -- winning the second Kremer prize in the process. Led by MacCready, AeroVironment later built the Gossamer Penguin, a 3/4 scale variant of the Albatross that utilized solar panels mounted above the wing to power the one-seat aircraft's small electric motor.

22 September: Josephine "Fifi" O'Connor Agather -- Namesake of the Commemorative Air Force's (CAF) B-29 FIFI. In the 1960s, Victor Agather spearheaded the drive to add a B-29 to the CAF's fleet and then successfully worked to remove the "no-fly" clause in the original agreement with the Air Force. As a result, in 1974 the aircraft was named FIFI in honor of Agather's wife. The only remaining airworthy B-29 in the world, FIFI is currently on display at CAF International Headquarters in Midland, TX.

1 October: Former DFRC Director Stanley Paul Butchart -- Butchart flew a number of prototype aircraft at Edwards in the 1950s, as well as the B-29 motherships used to launch experimental X-1A aircraft. During one such test launch of an unmanned X-1A, Butchart was credited with jettisoning the attached rocketplane moments before it exploded -- saving his crew and aircraft. He earned the NACA Exceptional Service Medal after the incident. In 1951, Butchart joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' High-Speed Flight Research Station -- the facility that later became NASA Dryden. He became Dryden's chief test pilot in 1966; he retired from DFRC 10 years later, as director of flight operations.

7 October: Doolittle Raider Maj. Nolan Herndon -- Herndon’s plane and crew have been a controversial mystery in the years since the raid on April 18, 1942. Unlike the others which crashed in China, Herndon -- who was a navigator, bombardier and gunner -- and his pilot and co-pilot headed instead for the Soviet Union, supposedly an ally of the US. The Soviets, who had maintained diplomatic relations with Japan to that point, had refused a US request for all the planes to land there. Herndon maintained the other two men on his plane were last-minute substitutions, intelligence agents intentionally diverted in a test of the Soviets' resolve as allies of the US. The three men were imprisoned after they landed, but escaped after a year. For his valor, Herndon received the Distinguished Flying Cross.

11 October: Flying Tiger David Lee 'Tex' Hill -- Hill graduated as a naval aviator in 1939... and soon joined the battle brewing overseas. He joined the American Volunteer Group "Flying Tigers" in China in 1941, flying Curtiss P-40 Warhawks. Hill's accomplishments in the AVG were forever immortalized in the 1942 film, "The Flying Tigers" -- with John Wayne playing him on the silver screen. After dissolution of the Flying Tigers in 1942, Hill was one of only five Flying Tigers to join its USAAF successor, the 23rd Fighter Group. He later rose to command the Group, as a major in the US Army Air Corps.Throughout the war, he racked up 18 1/4 confirmed enemy kills. He emerged from the war a hero, with numerous medals -- including a Silver Star, Legion of Merit, the British Flying Cross, and six Chinese combat medals. In 2002, he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.

1 November: 'Enola Gay' Pilot Paul Tibbets -- It was one moment in time, that brought about an end to war... the annihilation of a city, and a large portion of its population... and both fame and infamy to Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. The dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 changed the world forever -- and left Tibbets, who flew the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" that dropped that bomb, with no regrets. To the very end, Tibbets had to ward off protestors who criticized him for his role in the destruction of a city, and the loss of between 70,000 and 100,000 people. Per his own request, Tibbets had no funeral... and no headstone, so as not to give protestors a place to gather.

9 November: CAP Colonel Henry Ed Phipps -- A lifelong spokesman for Civil Air Patrol anti-subchaser patrols, Phipps joined CAP on the first day the organization was formed on December 1, 1941. A member of the Maryland Wing, he flew subchaser missions out of Coastal Patrol Base 2 in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Phipps was the featured anti-sub veteran in the History Channel’s segment on CAP anti-subchasers that aired in November 2001. Thiel said Phipps organized reunions for Coastal Patrol Base 2 for more than 20 years, in addition to his work as a spokesman. At the time of his death, Phipps was one of the few living members of Coastal Patrol Base 2, which was based in Rehoboth Beach, DE during World War II.

14 November: Fred 'Crash' Blechman -- His buddies called him "Crash" -- the funny ex-Navy pilot who earned his nickname by crashing five F4U Corsair fighter planes on landing during training missions at the end of World War II. Shortly before his death, Blechman refused surgery to repair an aneurysm doctors said could take his life at any time. He thanked them, but instead of treatment returned to the home he shared with his wife, Ev, who died six months earlier.

22 November: Colonel Jefferson DeBlanc, Sr. -- DeBlanc earned the Medal of Honor, the US military’s highest honor for bravery, for actions during an air raid against the Japanese in the Solomon Islands on January 31, 1943. The young lieutenant in his early twenties was the leader of six planes that provided air cover. Flying an F4F Grumman Wildcat, he downed two Japanese float planes and one fighter before returning for the naval base at Henderson Field. He then spotted two Japanese planes climbing up behind the bombers.His entire group was low on fuel, so Henderson ordered the rest of his flight squadron to return. He personally took on and shot down the two enemy aircraft, knowing he would likely not have enough fuel to return safely. The F4F was shot up and DeBlanc parachuted into the ocean, where he swam all night to reach Kolombarangara Island. Henderson was then captured by local natives... and traded to another tribe for rice. He was later picked up by a Navy float plane and returned to his squadron.

30 November: 'Rocket Man' Evel Knievel -- Though admittedly known more for his daring motorcycle stunts than his piloting skill, one can't deny the storied daredevil stunt man also racked up his share of time in the air... albeit only a few seconds at a time, and more often than not followed by a hard landing. In the end, it wasn't one of his stunts that cost Evel Knievel his life... but, in a sense, all of them. Riddled with scars from his many attempted daredevil feats, Knievel's health had failed him for years. He also suffered from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs. Knievel underwent a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C -- which he believed he contracted through a blood transfusion from an earlier injury. He also suffered two strokes in recent years. Knievel was best known for a failed attempt to jump an Idaho canyon on a rocket-cycle and a stunning crash at Caesar's Palace in Las, Vegas, NV. He is even immortalized at the Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil."

14 December: Palm Springs Air Museum Founder Robert Pond -- A former naval aviator, who later founded the Palm Springs Air Museum to honor World War II airmen, Pond said he first fell in love with airplanes at age 10... and, eight years later, told a Navy recruiter he'd be forced to take radical action if they didn't admit him to the Navy Air Corps program in 1942 (he threatened to join the Army instead.) After the war, Pond graduated from the University of Minnesota, and bought a Cessna 180. Over the years, Pond built collections of both warbirds and vintage cars. He opened the Palm Springs Air Museum on Veteran's Day in 1996. Pond was also well-known in sporting circles, as the namesake of the Pond Racer, designed by Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites. Pond commissioned the design in the late 1980s, to compete alongside vintage warbirds in the Unlimited Class at the Reno air races. The all-composite twin-engine aircraft paid homage to the Lockheed P-38.

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