Aviation
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Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.

History[link]

Many cultures have built devices that travel through the air, from the earliest projectiles such as stones and spears,^[1][2] the boomerang in Australia, the hot air Kongming lantern, and kites. There are early legends of human flight such as the story of Icarus, and Jamshid in Persian myth, and later, somewhat more credible claims of short-distance human flights appear, such as the flying automaton of Archytas of Tarentum (428–347 BC),^[3] the winged flights of Abbas Ibn Firnas (810–887), Eilmer of Malmesbury (11th century), and the hot-air Passarola of Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (1685–1724).

The modern age of aviation began with the first untethered human lighter-than-air flight on November 21, 1783, in a hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers. The practicality of balloons was limited because they could only travel downwind. It was immediately recognized that a steerable, or dirigible, balloon was required. Jean-Pierre Blanchard flew the first human-powered dirigible in 1784 and crossed the English Channel in one in 1785.

In 1799 Sir George Cayley set forth the concept of the modern airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control.^[4][5] Early dirigible developments included machine-powered propulsion (Henri Giffard, 1852), rigid frames (David Schwarz, 1896), and improved speed and maneuverability (Alberto Santos-Dumont, 1901)

First assisted take-off flight by the Wright Brothers, December 17, 1903

Hindenburg at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, 1936

While there are many competing claims for the earliest powered, heavier-than-air flight, the most widely-accepted date is December 17, 1903 by the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers were the first to fly in a powered and controlled aircraft. Previous flights were gliders (control but no power) or free flight (power but no control), but the Wright brothers combined both, setting the new standard in aviation records. Following this, the widespread adoption of ailerons rather than wing warping made aircraft much easier to control, and only a decade later, at the start of World War I, heavier-than-air powered aircraft had become practical for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and even attacks against ground positions.

Aircraft began to transport people and cargo as designs grew larger and more reliable. In contrast to small non-rigid blimps, giant rigid airships became the first aircraft to transport passengers and cargo over great distances. The best known aircraft of this type were manufactured by the German Zeppelin company.

The most successful Zeppelin was the Graf Zeppelin. It flew over one million miles, including an around-the-world flight in August 1929. However, the dominance of the Zeppelins over the airplanes of that period, which had a range of only a few hundred miles, was diminishing as airplane design advanced. The "Golden Age" of the airships ended on May 6, 1937 when the Hindenburg caught fire, killing 36 people. Although there have been periodic initiatives to revive their use, airships have seen only niche application since that time.

Great progress was made in the field of aviation during the 1920s and 1930s, such as Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight in 1927, and Charles Kingsford Smith's transpacific flight the following year. One of the most successful designs of this period was the Douglas DC-3, which became the first airliner that was profitable carrying passengers exclusively, starting the modern era of passenger airline service. By the beginning of World War II, many towns and cities had built airports, and there were numerous qualified pilots available. The war brought many innovations to aviation, including the first jet aircraft and the first liquid-fueled rockets.

NASA's Helios researches solar powered flight.

After World War II, especially in North America, there was a boom in general aviation, both private and commercial, as thousands of pilots were released from military service and many inexpensive war-surplus transport and training aircraft became available. Manufacturers such as Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft expanded production to provide light aircraft for the new middle-class market.

By the 1950s, the development of civil jets grew, beginning with the de Havilland Comet, though the first widely-used passenger jet was the Boeing 707, because it was much more economical than other planes at the time. At the same time, turboprop propulsion began to appear for smaller commuter planes, making it possible to serve small-volume routes in a much wider range of weather conditions.

Since the 1960s, composite airframes and quieter, more efficient engines have become available, and Concorde provided supersonic passenger service for more than two decades, but the most important lasting innovations have taken place in instrumentation and control. The arrival of solid-state electronics, the Global Positioning System, satellite communications, and increasingly small and powerful computers and LED displays, have dramatically changed the cockpits of airliners and, increasingly, of smaller aircraft as well. Pilots can navigate much more accurately and view terrain, obstructions, and other nearby aircraft on a map or through synthetic vision, even at night or in low visibility.

On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded aircraft to make a spaceflight, opening the possibility of an aviation market capable of leaving the Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, flying prototypes of aircraft powered by alternative fuels, such as ethanol, electricity, and even solar energy, are becoming more common.

Civil aviation[link]

Civil aviation includes all non-military flying, both general aviation and scheduled air transport.

Air transport[link]

Northwest Airlines Airbus A330-323X

There are five major manufacturers of civil transport aircraft (in alphabetical order):

• Airbus, based in Europe
• Boeing, based in the United States
• Bombardier, based in Canada
• Embraer, based in Brazil
• United Aircraft Corporation, based in Russia

Boeing, Airbus, Ilyushin and Tupolev concentrate on wide-body and narrow-body jet airliners, while Bombardier, Embraer and Sukhoi concentrate on regional airliners. Large networks of specialized parts suppliers from around the world support these manufacturers, who sometimes provide only the initial design and final assembly in their own plants. The Chinese ACAC consortium will also soon enter the civil transport market with its ACAC ARJ21 regional jet.^[6]

Until the 1970s, most major airlines were flag carriers, sponsored by their governments and heavily protected from competition. Since then, open skies agreements have resulted in increased competition and choice for consumers, coupled with falling prices for airlines. The combination of high fuel prices, low fares, high salaries, and crises such as the September 11, 2001 attacks and the SARS epidemic have driven many older airlines to government-bailouts, bankruptcy or mergers. At the same time, low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, Southwest and Westjet have flourished.

General aviation[link]

1947 Cessna 120

A weight-shift ultralight aircraft, the Air Creation Tanarg

General aviation includes all non-scheduled civil flying, both private and commercial. General aviation may include business flights, air charter, private aviation, flight training, ballooning, parachuting, gliding, hang gliding, aerial photography, foot-launched powered hang gliders, air ambulance, crop dusting, charter flights, traffic reporting, police air patrols and forest fire fighting.

Each country regulates aviation differently, but general aviation usually falls under different regulations depending on whether it is private or commercial and on the type of equipment involved.

Many small aircraft manufacturers serve the general aviation market, with a focus on private aviation and flight training.

The most important recent developments for small aircraft (which form the bulk of the GA fleet) have been the introduction of advanced avionics (including GPS) that were formerly found only in large airliners, and the introduction of composite materials to make small aircraft lighter and faster. Ultralight and homebuilt aircraft have also become increasingly popular for recreational use, since in most countries that allow private aviation, they are much less expensive and less heavily regulated than certified aircraft.

Military aviation[link]

Simple balloons were used as surveillance aircraft as early as the 18th century. Over the years, military aircraft have been built to meet ever increasing capability requirements. Manufacturers of military aircraft compete for contracts to supply their government's arsenal. Aircraft are selected based on factors like cost, performance, and the speed of production.

The Lockheed SR-71 remains unsurpassed in many areas of performance.

Types of military aviation[link]

• Fighter aircraft's primary function is to destroy other aircraft. (e.g. Sopwith Camel, A6M Zero, F-15, MiG-29, Su-27, and F-22).
• Ground attack aircraft are used against tactical earth-bound targets. (e.g. Junkers Stuka, A-10, Il-2, J-22 Orao, AH-64 and Su-25).
• Bombers are generally used against more strategic targets, such as factories and oil fields. (e.g. Zeppelin, Tu-95, Mirage IV, and B-52).
• Transport aircraft are used to transport hardware and personnel. (e.g. C-17 Globemaster III, C-130 Hercules and Mil Mi-26).
• Surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft obtain information about enemy forces. (e.g. Rumpler Taube, Mosquito, U-2, OH-58 and MiG-25R).
• Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used primarily as reconnaissance fixed-wing aircraft, though many also carry payloads. Cargo aircraft are in development. (e.g. RQ-7B Shadow, MQ-8 Fire Scout, and MQ-1C Gray Eagle).
• Missiles deliver warheads, normally explosives, but also things like leaflets.

Air Traffic Control (ATC)[link]

Air traffic control towers at Amsterdam Airport

Air traffic control (ATC) involves communication with aircraft to help maintain separation — that is, they ensure that aircraft are sufficiently far enough apart horizontally or vertically for no risk of collision. Controllers may co-ordinate position reports provided by pilots, or in high traffic areas (such as the United States) they may use radar to see aircraft positions.

There are generally four different types of ATC:

• center controllers, who control aircraft en route between airports
• control towers (including tower, ground control, clearance delivery, and other services), which control aircraft within a small distance (typically 10–15 km horizontal, and 1,000 m vertical) of an airport.
• oceanic controllers, who control aircraft over international waters between continents, generally without radar service.
• terminal controllers, who control aircraft in a wider area (typically 50–80 km) around busy airports.

ATC is especially important for aircraft flying under Instrument flight rules (IFR), where they may be in weather conditions that do not allow the pilots to see other aircraft. However, in very high-traffic areas, especially near major airports, aircraft flying under Visual flight rules (VFR) are also required to follow instructions from ATC.

In addition to separation from other aircraft, ATC may provide weather advisories, terrain separation, navigation assistance, and other services to pilots, depending on their workload.

ATC do not control all flights. The majority of VFR flights in North America are not required to talk to ATC (unless they are passing through a busy terminal area or using a major airport), and in many areas, such as northern Canada and low altitude in northern Scotland, Air trafic control services are not available even for IFR flights at lower altitudes.

Environmental impact[link]

Like all activities involving combustion, operating powered aircraft (from airliners to hot air balloons) release soot and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) are also produced. In addition, there are environmental impacts specific to aviation:

Water vapor contrails left by high-altitude jet airliners. These may contribute to cirrus cloud formation.

• Aircraft operating at high altitudes near the tropopause (mainly large jet airliners) emit aerosols and leave contrails, both of which can increase cirrus cloud formation — cloud cover may have increased by up to 0.2% since the birth of aviation.^[7]
• Aircraft operating at high altitudes near the tropopause can also release chemicals that interact with greenhouse gases at those altitudes, particularly nitrogen compounds, which interact with ozone, increasing ozone concentrations.^[8][9]
• Most light piston aircraft burn avgas, which contains tetra-ethyl lead (TEL). Some lower-compression piston engines can operate on unleaded mogas, and turbine engines and diesel engines — neither of which requires lead — are appearing on some newer light aircraft.

See also[link]

Aviation portal

	Book: Aviation
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aviation

Wikiversity has learning materials about Aviation at The School of Aviation

• Aeronautics
• Aviation, aerospace, and aeronautical terms
• Environmental impact of aviation
• List of aviation topics
• Timeline of aviation

Notes[link]

For the film see Tall Tale (film)

A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories ('the fish that got away') such as, "that fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely fictional tales set in a familiar setting, such as the European countryside, the American Old West, the Canadian Northwest, or the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Tall tales are often told so as to make the narrator seem to have been a part of the story. They are usually humorous or good-natured. The line between myth and tall tale is distinguished primarily by age; many myths exaggerate the exploits of their heroes, but in tall tales the exaggeration looms large, to the extent of becoming the whole of the story.

Rabelais' giant, Pantagruel, sleeps after his encounter; curious onlookers surround the sea serpent he has vanquished. Woodcut by Gustave Doré

[edit] American tall tale

The tall tale is a fundamental element of American folk literature. The tall tale's origins are seen in the bragging contests that often occurred when the rough men of the American frontier gathered. The tales of legendary figures of the Old West, some listed below, owe much to the style of tall tales.

The bi-annual speech contests optionally held by Toastmasters International public speaking clubs may include a Tall Tales contest. Each participating speaker is given three to five minutes to give a short speech of a tall tale nature, and is then judged according to several factors. The winner and runner-up proceed to the next level of competition. The contest does not proceed beyond any participating district in the organization to the International level.

The comic strip Non Sequitur sometimes features tall tales told by the character Captain Eddie; it is left up to the reader to decide if he is telling the truth, exaggerating a real event, or just telling a whopper.

With "§" indicating legendary figures who are known to be based on actual historical individuals, other subjects of American tall tales include:

Paul Bunyan's sidekick, Babe the blue ox, sculpted as a ten-meter tall roadside tourist attraction

• Johnny Appleseed – A friendly folk-hero who traveled the West planting apple trees because he felt his guardian angel told him to §
• Tony Beaver – A West Virginia lumberjack and cousin of Paul Bunyan
• Pecos Bill – legendary cowboy who "tamed the wild west"
• Cordwood Pete – Younger brother to lumberjack Paul Bunyan
• Daniel Boone – Blazed a trail across Cumberland Gap to found the first English-speaking colonies west of the Appalachian Mountains §
• Aylett C. "Strap" Buckner – An Indian-fighter of colonial Texas §^[1]
• Paul Bunyan – huge lumberjack who eats 50 pancakes in one minute
• Davy Crockett – A pioneer and U.S. Congressman from Tennessee who later died at the Battle of the Alamo §
• Febold Feboldson – A Nebraska farmer who could fight a drought
• Mike Fink – The toughest boatman on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a rival of Davy Crockett. Also known as the King of the Mississippi River Keelboatmen §
• John Henry – A mighty steel-driving African American§
• Calamity Jane – A tough Wild West woman §
• Casey Jones – A brave and gritty railroad engineer §
• Johnny Kaw, a fictional Kansan whose mythological status itself was in one sense a figment, in that it was created recently, in 1955. Adherents of this assessment deem such stories fakelore
• Joe Magarac – A Pittsburgh steelworker made of steel
• Molly Pitcher – A heroine of the American Revolutionary War §
• Alfred Bulltop Stormalong – An immense sailor whose ship was so big it scraped the moon

Similar traditions in other cultures[link]

The Columnar basalt that makes up the Giant's Causeway; in legend, a fine set of hexagonal stepping stones to Scotland, made by Finn mac Cumail

Similar storytelling traditions are present elsewhere. For instance

• The many farfetched adventures of Baron Munchhausen, some of which may have had a folklore basis
• The Cumbrian Liars, a United Kingdom association who follow in the seven-league footsteps of Will Ritson.^[2]
• A brown bear coating himself in baking soda to be acceptable to humans as a polar bear, a young boy selling frozen words, and a woman whose voice cuts through a giant tree to release oranges that light the Polar night are all tales told by a Pomor elder in the Soviet animation film Laughter and Grief by the White Sea.
• The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel by the French writer Rabelais told the tale of two giants; father and son.
• Legends of Fionn mac Cumhaill also known by many other names including Finn MacCool, have it that he built the Giant's Causeway as stepping-stones to Scotland, so as not to get his feet wet; and that he also once scooped up part of Ireland to fling it at a rival, but it missed and landed in the Irish Sea — the clump became the Isle of Man and the pebble became Rockall, the void became Lough Neagh.

The skvader, an example of a tall tale hunting story.

• Toell the Great was one of the great tall tales of Estonia.

Australian tall tales[link]

The Australian frontier (known as the bush or the outback) similarly inspired the types of tall tales that are found in American folklore. The Australian versions typically centre around a mythical station called The Speewah.

The heroes of the Speewah include:

• Big Bill – The dumbest man on the Speewah who made his living cutting up mining shafts and selling them for post holes
• Crooked Mick – A champion shearer who had colossal strength and quick wit.
• Rodney Ansell

Another folk hero in Australian folklore is Charlie McKeahnie, The Man from Snowy River – A hero (created by author Banjo Patterson) whose bravery, adaptability, and risk-taking could epitomise the new Australian spirit.

Canadian tall tales[link]

The Canadian frontier has also inspired the types of tall tales that are found in American folklore.

• French Canadian tales of Big Joe Mufferaw, a giant of a lumberjack and woodsman from the Ottawa Valley.
• Johnny Chinook was a Canadian cowboy and rancher of the Canadian West's Alberta, Canada.
• And Ti-Jean, a giant 10 year old French-Canadian lumberjack boy of Canada.

Modern-day tall tales[link]

Tall tales in visual media[link]

Early 20th century postcards became a vehicle for tall tale telling in the US.^[3][4] Creators of these cards, such as the prolific Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr.,^[5] and William H. "Dad" Martin, usually employed trick photography, including forced perspective, while others painted their unlikely tableaus,^[4] or used a combination of painting and photography in early examples of photo retouching.^[6] The common theme was gigantism: fishing for leviathans,^[4][7] hunting for^[4][8] or riding^[9][10] oversized animals, and bringing in the impossibly huge sheaves.^[4][11] An homage to the genre can be found on the cover of the Eat a Peach album.

Folklore portal

See also[link]

• Big Joe Mufferaw
• Baron Münchhausen
• Big Fish – Tim Burton movie relating the story of a dying man to his son exaggerating the details of his life
• Chuck Norris facts – Tall tales about Chuck Norris.
• Conspiracy theory
• Exaggeration
• Folk tale
• Fairy tale
• Legend
• Myth
• Pseudoscience
• Urban legend
• Skvader
• 2012 phenomenon
• Superstition

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Brown, Carolyn. (1989). The Tall Tale in American Folklore and Literature. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 0-87049-627-1.

External links[link]

• American Tall Tales
• Tall Tales, Whoppers and Lies – Audio Recording

Robert A. Hoover
Bob Hoover's 2005 Gathering of Eagles Lithograph (USAF Image)
Nickname	Bob
Born	(1922-01-24) January 24, 1922 (age 90) Nashville, Tennessee
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	1940–1948
Rank	First Lieutenant
Unit	52nd Fighter Group Flight Evaluation Group
Battles/wars	World War II Korean War
Awards	Distinguished Flying Cross Soldier's Medal for Valor Air Medal with Clusters Purple Heart Croix de guerre
Other work	Test and air show pilot

Robert A. "Bob" Hoover (born January 24, 1922) is a former air show pilot and United States Air Force test pilot, known for his wide-brimmed straw hat and wide smile. In aviation circles, he is often referred to as "The pilots' pilot."

Aviation career[link]

Bob Hoover learned to fly at Nashville's Berry Field while working at a local grocery store to pay for the flight training.^[1] He enlisted in the Tennessee National Guard and was sent for pilot training with the Army.^[2] During World War II, he was sent to Casablanca where his first major assignment was test flying the assembled aircraft ready for service.^[3] He was later assigned to the Spitfire-equipped 52nd Fighter Group in Sicily.^[4] In 1944, on his 59th mission, his malfunctioning Mark V Spitfire was shot down by a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 off the coast of Southern France and he was taken prisoner.^[5] He spent 16 months at the German prison camp Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Germany.^[6]

He managed to escape from the prison camp, stole an Fw 190, and flew to safety in the Netherlands.^[7] After the war, he was assigned to flight-test duty at Wright Field. There he impressed and befriended Chuck Yeager.^[8] Later when Yeager was asked who he wanted for flight crew for the supersonic Bell X-1 flight, he named Bob Hoover. Hoover was Yeager's backup pilot in the Bell X-1 program and flew chase for Yeager in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star during the Mach 1 flight.^[9] He also flew chase for the 50th anniversary in an F-16 Fighting Falcon.^[10]

He left the Air Force for civilian jobs in 1948.^[11] This included a brief time with Allison Engine Company and finally test/demonstration pilot with North American Aviation where he went on to Korea teaching the pilots in Korean war how to dive-bomb with the F-86 Sabre, and visited many active-duty, reserve and air national guard units to demonstrate the plane's capabilities to their pilots. Hoover flew flight tests on the FJ "Fury," F-86 "Sabre," and the F-100 "Supersabre."

In the early 1960s, Hoover proposed the idea promoting the North American name by demonstrating one of North American's most famous products, the P-51 Mustang fighter, at airshows around the country. The Hoover Mustang (N2251D) was purchased by North American Aviation from Dave Lindsay's Cavalier Aircraft Corp. in 1962. A second Mustang( N51RH), later named "Ole Yeller," was purchased by North American Rockwell from Cavalier in 1971 to replace the earlier aircraft that was destroyed in a ground accident when an oxygen bottle exploded after being overfilled. Hoover demonstrated the Mustang and later the Aero Commander at hundreds of airshows until his retirement in the 1990s. In 1997 Hoover sold Ole Yeller to his good friend John Bagley of Rexburg, Idaho. Ole Yeller still flies frequently and is based out of the Legacy Flight Museum [1] in Rexburg, Idaho.

Bob Hoover has set records for transcontinental and "time to climb" speed,^[12] and has personally known such great aviators as Orville Wright, Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, James H Doolittle, Jacqueline Cochran, Neil Armstrong, and Yuri Gagarin.^[13]

Bob Hoover is best known for his civil air show career, which started when he was hired to demonstrate the capabilities of Aero Commander's Shrike Commander, a twin piston-engined business aircraft which had developed a rather staid reputation due to its bulky shape. Hoover showed the strength of the plane as he put the aircraft through rolls, loops, and other maneuvers which most people would not associate with executive aircraft. As a grand finale, he shut down both engines and executed a loop and an eight-point hesitation slow roll as he headed back to the runway. He touched down on one tire, then the other, before landing. After pulling off the runway, he would start engines to taxi back to the parking area. On airfields with large enough parking ramps (such as the Reno Stead Airport where the Reno Air Races take place), Hoover would sometimes land directly on the ramp and coast all the way back to his parking spot in front of the grandstand without re-starting the engines.

A few years after starting the show, he began carrying passengers during the show. (The Shrike Commander carries six passengers.) These passengers became known as "Hoover's Heavers" due to the number who became airsick during the maneuvers.^{[citation needed]}

With the advent of camcorders, Hoover added a flourish to the act by pouring a cup of tea from a Thermos bottle, while performing a slow barrel roll, a 1G maneuver. Video of this has been widely distributed, to the pleasure of Aero Commander enthusiasts.^{[citation needed]}

Hoover also served for many years as the official starter of the Unlimited-class races at the Reno Air Races. The race planes (mostly modified World War II fighter aircraft) joined up in line-abreast formation on Hoover's yellow P-51 Mustang, and when in satisfactory order the spectators would hear over the PA his famous radio call, "Gentlemen, you have a race." Hoover's plane would pull up sharply into a vertical climb as the racers dived toward the first turn. Hoover would circle overhead during the race, ready to assist any race pilots with problems. In several cases, Hoover helped pilots with crippled race planes to a safe recovery by talking them down while flying in formation with them.

Medical controversy[link]

"Ole Yeller," flown by John Bagley at an air show in Rexburg, ID.

His air show aerobatics career ended over medical concerns, when his medical certificate was revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the early 1990s.^[14]

Shortly before his revocation, Hoover experienced serious engine problems in a T-28 off the coast of California. During his return to Torrance, he was able to keep the engine running intermittently by constantly manipulating the throttle, mixture, and propeller lever. Just as he landed the engine froze. Hoover believed his successful management of this difficult emergency should have convinced the FAA that his capabilities were as good as ever.^[15] Meanwhile, Hoover was granted a pilot's licence, and medical certificate, by Australia's aviation authorities.^[16]

Bob Hoover's Shrike Commander at the Udvar-Hazy Center

Now that his air show career is not over, his Shrike Commander is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center, in Dulles, Virginia.^[17]

Honors and recognition[link]

Bob Hoover is considered one of the founding fathers of modern aerobatics, and was described by Jimmy Doolittle as, "... the greatest stick-and-rudder man who ever lived."^[18] In the Centennial of Flight edition of the Air & Space Smithsonian, he was named the third greatest aviator in history.

During his illustrious career he was awarded the following military medals: Distinguished Flying Cross, Soldier's Medal for Valor, Air Medal with Clusters, Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre.^[19] He was also made an honorary member of the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, RCAF Snowbirds, American Fighter Aces Association, Original Eagle squadron and received an Award of Merit from the American Fighter Pilots Association.^[19] In 1992, he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.^[20] In 2007, he received the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum Trophy.^[18][21]

On 18 May 2010 R.A. "Bob" Hoover delivered the 2010 Charles A. Lindbergh Memorial Lecture at the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School conferred an honorary doctorate on Hoover at the school's December 2010 graduation ceremony.^[22]

Hoover Nozzle and Hoover Ring[link]

A perhaps-undesired recognition is the "Hoover Nozzle" used on jet-fuel pumps. The Hoover Nozzle is designed with a flattened bell shape. The Hoover Nozzle cannot be inserted in the filler neck of a plane with the "Hoover Ring" installed, thus preventing the tank from accidentally being filled with jet fuel.

This system was given this name following an accident in which Hoover was seriously injured, when both engines on his Shrike Commander failed during takeoff. Investigators found that the plane had just been fueled by line personnel who mistook the piston-engine Shrike for a similar turboprop model, filling the tanks with jet fuel instead of avgas (aviation gasoline).^[23] There was enough avgas in the fuel system to taxi to the runway and take off, but then the jet fuel was drawn into the engines, causing them to stop.

Once Hoover recovered, he widely promoted the use of the new type of nozzle with the support and funding of the National Air Transportation Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association and various other aviation groups (the nozzle is now required by Federal regulation on jet fuel pumps).

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Hoover, Robert A.; Mark Shaw (1996). Forever Flying. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-53760-1. 

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	United States Air Force portal

• Bob Hoover video in which he pours tea while performing a barrel roll from Alexis Park Inn & Suites' video library
• Audio interview with Bob Hoover
• Energy conservation video
• Hoover 2005 Gathering of Eagles Biography
• http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7027064

This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Discussion about the problems with the sole source used may be found on the talk page. (January 2010)

Kevin Callahan (born February 18, 1955) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach at Monmouth University. Callahan was the first and is the only head coach in Monmouth history. The team's first season was in 1993, and Callahan led them to a 2–5 record.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Monmouth profile
• Kevin Callahan at the College Football Data Warehouse

This biographical article relating to a college football coach first appointed in the 1990s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e