Lost Wildcat and Pilot at Wings Over Houston

I was at the show all day Sunday… and have the sunburn to prove it…

Apparently it crashed (no fire) on approach to Ellington Field about 630PM Sat nite, after a photo op flight.

The end-of-show missing man formation was partly dedicated to the lost pilot. Another Wildcat carried on throughout the show.

The news this morning on tv showed the remains of the Wildcat being trailered off. I think it wend down at the south end of the airfield (where the NASA astronauts train and fly) in undeveloped oil land. Right near Interstate 45 and FM 2351.
The only recognizable part was a large portion of the rear fuselage.

I must have driven right near the site Sunday after the show when leaving, and not known it.

Cause of crash after air show (ended about 4pm) not yet known. I heard someone mention a rumor he may have run out of fuel… But NO way of knowing.

Online article from Houston Chronicle.com>>

Pilot died ‘living a dream,’ friend says
Cause of crash after air show not yet known

By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

(see picture)

Bill Johnson, right, shown with wife Linda, died in plane crash in Clear Lake shortly after Friday’s Wings Over Houston Airshow. Johnson was flying a vintage WWII plane.
William K. Johnson died doing what he wanted to do all his life — fly a World War II warplane.

“One of the last words he spoke to me was, `Boyd, I’m living a dream,’ ” Johnson’s brother-in-law, Boyd Parsons, said Sunday.

Johnson, 62, of Parkton, N.C., died Saturday when the Grumman FM-2 Wildcat he was flying crashed in a field off Clear Lake City Boulevard as it made its final landing approach at Ellington Field shortly after 6 p.m.

He had participated in Saturday’s Wings Over Houston Air Show at Ellington earlier in the day.

The single-engine Wildcat was manufactured in 1944 by General Motors and is owned by American Air Power Heritage Group, but it is flown and maintained by the Commemorative Air Force at its headquarters in Midland.

Johnson had 6,000 hours of flying time when he joined the CAF in 1999, said Bob Rice, CAF president.

“Among his peers, he would have been seen as a very experienced pilot,” Rice said.

Johnson, a retired air traffic controller, had owned three vintage military aircraft: a PT-17 Stearman trainer, an SNJ-6 Navy advanced trainer and a British AT-19 Reliant navigational trainer, Rice said.

Parsons said Johnson underwent three years of training before he was allowed to fly the Wildcat for the CAF.

“His dream was to fly a Navy combat fighter from World War II,” he said.

Rice said Johnson had flown the Wildcat in several other air shows, most recently in Midland.

Johnson was the airboss, who orchestrates air shows, for the CAF Carolinas Wing. The plane was based in Franklin, Va., he said.

Officials said Johnson was participating in a photo opportunity along with several other planes when the crash occurred.

Authorities had not determined the cause of the crash as of Sunday.

A spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board said an investigator had been sent to the crash site.

The Grumman Wildcat planes were delivered to the Navy in 1940 and were used in every major naval battle in the Pacific during World War II.

(end)

Gull wing Corsair hinge details

MPG,

Yo, dude! I think the book Mark referenced is the one I have, and that I mentioned in my note to you earlier….

If you liked the Stuka, you could have the gull wings and no hinge issues!!!

😀

PS Welcome to the forum!!!!

JP

Airplanes in Music

Jimmy Buffett has tons of songs including airplanes….

(You know, that guy who wrote Wasting away again in Margaritaville….) He not only sings (OK, some of you don’t call what he does singing…. I can live with that… )

He has a Grumman Albatross, a Stearman, Falcon 50 corp jet, and a large Cessan turboprop float plane…

http://www.margaritaville.com/adventures/dancer.htm

http://www.geocities.com/pittmantlh/JBPlanes/jbplanes.html

http://www.lpba.org/jb2000.html

He has flown for years, and had numerous experiences while flying… He actually survived his crash on takeoff in his Grumman Widgeon near Boston’s Cape Cod. Got shot at by Jamaican police thinking he was a drug runner, etc.

I can’t think of a musician who has not only written so many songs about airplanes, but actually lived his songs…

Jamaica Mistaka

http://www.margaritaville.com/discography/BananaWind.htm#Jamaica%20Mistaica

Strange Bird

http://www.margaritaville.com/discography/OffToSeeTheLizard.htm#STRANGE%20BIRD

Tree Top Flyer (hidden track at end of Banana Wind album)

Somewhere over China

http://www.margaritaville.com/discography/SomewhereOverChina.htm#SOMEWHERE%20OVER%20CHINA

Desdamona’s building a rocket ship (Cosmic Muffin, a Boeing Stratoliner now a boat)

http://www.margaritaville.com/discography/BananaWind.htm#Desdemona‘s%20Building%20a%20Rocket%20Ship

But I know he did not write Itazuki Tower! I have the old LP with those flying songs on em…