Untold War Stories
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An American pilot spent almost 16 months inside a German POW camp.
Then he escaped.
He found a German Fw 190, climbed inside a fighter he had never flown before and stole it.
Then he flew it to freedom.
Somehow, that wasn't even the most remarkable part of his flying career.
This is the story of Bob Hoover..馃У1/6
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Bob Hoover was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1922. As a young man he worked at a grocery store to help pay for flying lessons at Berry Field. He taught himself aerobatics and eventually entered the Army through the Tennessee National Guard.
During World War II he was sent overseas, first flight testing and ferrying aircraft from Casablanca before joining the Spitfire equipped 52nd Fighter Group.
Hoover flew 58 combat missions before February 9, 1944.
That day, while flying off southern France, his Spitfire was attacked by an Fw 190. His aircraft was hit and Hoover was forced to bail out over the Mediterranean.
He survived the fall, only to be picked up by a German vessel.
The fighter pilot became a prisoner of war.
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Hoover spent almost 16 months at Stalag Luft I in Barth. He made escape attempts before, but in April 1945, with Germany collapsing, Hoover and two other POWs finally got out.
They eventually found a damaged Fw 190 with fuel in its tanks.
Hoover had never flown one, although another POW had previously briefed him on the German fighter. Armed with a pistol obtained from a French civilian, they forced a German mechanic to start the engine.
Hoover climbed inside alone.
He took off across the field and headed west, flying an aircraft covered in German markings toward newly liberated Holland.
When he landed, Dutch civilians reportedly came after him with pitchforks.
Hoover had escaped the Germans.
Now he had to convince the Allies that he wasn't one.
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For most pilots, that would have been the defining story of their lives.
For Bob Hoover, it was almost the beginning.
After the war he became a test pilot at Wright Field, evaluating captured enemy aircraft and some of America's newest experimental machines.
Then he became involved with one of the most important flights in aviation history.
On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager climbed into the Bell X 1 to attempt to break the sound barrier.
Hoover had been selected as an alternate X 1 pilot.
That day, Hoover flew chase in a P 80 as his friend Chuck Yeager became the first person to officially fly faster than the speed of sound.
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Hoover's career kept going.
He became a test pilot for North American Aviation and flew aircraft including the F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre.
Then he became an airshow legend.
Hoover flew his famous yellow P-51 Mustang, "Ole Yeller," and later performed extraordinary demonstrations in a twin engine Shrike Commander.
He became famous for shutting down the engines and using nothing but the aircraft's remaining speed, altitude and his understanding of energy to perform maneuvers and return to the runway.
During another famous demonstration, Hoover poured iced tea into a glass while rolling the aircraft, using a smooth one G maneuver to keep the liquid from spilling.
For decades he also flew the pace and safety aircraft at the Reno Air Races.
Among pilots, Hoover had become known simply as the "pilot's pilot."
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Bob Hoover kept flying for decades.
In 1985, at 63 years old, he flew his P-51 from Daytona Beach to Los Angeles in just 5 hours and 20 minutes, setting a coast to coast record.
He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1988.
Chuck Yeager would later describe Hoover as the greatest stick and rudder pilot he had ever seen.
Hoover died on October 25, 2016. He was 94 years old.
Think about the life between those dates.
He flew dozens of combat missions. He was shot down. He spent almost 16 months as a POW. He escaped, stole an Fw-190 and flew himself to freedom.
Then he came home and spent decades testing some of the fastest aircraft in existence and demonstrating a level of aircraft control that made him a legend among other pilots.
The stolen German fighter wasn't the end of Bob Hoover's story.
It was barely the beginning.
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