Just Talking Airplanes

We’re sitting down for breakfast on Tuesday the 16th, as the celebration for the Centennial of Flight is hitting high gear. News commentator Mort Crim, a friend from Detroit and Oshkosh, joins Jim Campbell and I at the table for 8, and in a minute, calls out, “Senator, come sit down.”

With US Senators from North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Alaska expected for the commemoration, we hadn't considered anyone else at the ANN table. We looked up into the smiling faces of John and Annie Glenn.

John Glenn, Marine Fighter Pilot, Astronaut, U.S. Senator, American Hero. On Wednesday, he was going to be named one of the 100 Aviation heroes for the First Century of Flight. For 82 years old, with a front row seat in World War 2, Korea and the Cold War, not to mention a score of political battles, including a run for the White House, he looked pretty good.

There was general conversation, and then I piped up “Colonel, you flew the Corsair, right? There’s a real sharp F-4U* at the Wright Memorial…” His face lit up like a kid at Christmas. “I have three thousand hours in the Corsair” he said “of all the aircraft I ever flew…that’s where I have the most hours. The first time I ever saw that cockpit, it was the most complex aircraft flying. All of those dials and switches…and I never thought there would be an engine bigger, or more powerful than that Pratt & Whitney R-2800.”

That’s when we started talking airplanes.

“I think this Centennial Celebration is a great way to get the younger generation fired up about aviation…about the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers.” Glenn said. “I hope it will spark someone’s imagination when it comes to flying.”

Somehow, the conversation changed direction.

"Makes me want to get a motorcycle… a big Harley-Davidson.” The Colonel said. That prompted about 15 minutes of give-and-take teasing with his wife, Annie, over a leather motorcycle jacket, or her riding in a sidecar, or even getting a motorcycle tattoo.

They were laughing, eyes sparkling through the entire dialogue.

Someone else at the table brought up the 1984 movie “The Right Stuff” that featured Ed Harris playing Glenn. “I never heard from him while he was getting ready for the movie, and just got a letter about six months ago. I didn’t like the movie” he said, “They took liberty with a lot of things that happened.”

I said maybe, like the Wright Centennial, that the movie brought attention to Project Mercury, 20 years after those 6 brave men launched into space.

Glenn admitted that, maybe, it probably did, and then added that he really liked Apollo 13.

It was time to launch towards the Wright Brothers Centennial Celebration. Smiles and handshakes all around. At a once in a lifetime event, we got to spend a little time, over breakfast, with the first American hero of the space age.

E-I-C Note: This was an amazing morning... and while Rob does an excellent job of telling about the delights of the event, let me also add that Annie Glenn is as much a delight as her famous spouse. I've learned something from my friendship with such accomplished figures as Bob Hoover and so many others--especially those from a military background. Like Bob, Senator Glenn is one half of an amazing team. John and Annie are obviously partners in every sense of the word, as are Bob and Colleen Hoover, and it is cool to see two people who are so well-matched, so accomplished and so obviously right for each other. Very cool....--Jim Campbell, ANN E-I-C

FMI: www.nasm.edu/nasm/pa/nasmnews/pr/hazycenter/highlights.htm