The National Business Aviation Association convention draws aviation’s elite and honors a few each year. This time, heartfelt kudos were laid on Bob Hoover as NBAA presented him its Meritorious Service to Aviation Award, its highest honor. A five-minute video included tributes from Clay Lacy, Harrison Ford, astronaut Gene Cernan and many others to explain why.
Airshow star Sean D. Tucker joined NBAA president Ed Bolen in the on-stage presentation to Hoover. In the video, Hoover responded by saying, “I never felt that I was any different than anybody else. I was just lucky enough to have been at the right place at the right time.”
Later, Hoover was right on time for his three-hour autograph session at the Shell booth, where he scootered in unescorted at 1 p.m. to the minute. And he held court all the way through to 4 p.m. to sign his iconic poster for fans young and old. This 92-year-old is still clicking on all cylinders.
Elsewhere at the show, an ad hoc theater previewed a 15-minute slice of the new documentary on Hoover’s life and times. “Flying on the Feathered Edge” is the product of Kim Furst, award-winning director and the skilled film editor behind Brian Terwilliger’s 2005 “ONE-SIX RIGHT” tribute to General Aviation and Los Angeles’ GA mecca, Van Nuys Airport.
Furst has invested three years in this, her fifth aviation documentary. She’s clearly a Hoover fan.
“He’s so charming and such a good storyteller,” she confided in a promotional video.
She says she strived to create, “An evergreen tribute to a man who has given so much… and inspired generations.”
“Feathered Edge” is also a tribute to our times through Hoover’s life from World War II to death-defying jet-age flight tests to dramatic public demonstrations of business aircraft reliability and capability. There’s plenty of flight test and air show footage attesting to “the greatest stick-and-rudder man that ever lived,” as Hoover was dubbed by Jimmy Doolittle.
In the film, astronaut Gene Cernan summed up the import of Hoover’s life. “He is one of the last of a breed, a man who has left his mark on history.”
The 82-minute work will be released on DVD Nov.17. Learn more at TheBobHooverProject.com.
I read Hoover’s book “Forever Flying” which was filled from cover to cover with one story after another all of which were riveting. He was a great story teller and had lots of them to tell. I agree with Cernan’s comment that Bob Hoover is the last one of a special breed of aviator. I’ve had the pleasure of watching him perform in years past with his trademark stunts in his Rockwell Shrike Commander N500RA of “dancing” on the wheels when landing whence he would touch down on one wheel then rock over and touch with the other wheel, etc. finishing his show with both engines shut down and props feathered in a low flyby, reversing and landing in the opposite direction with just enough energy left to taxi up to the crowd then step out, remove his panama straw and give a sweeping bow to the assembled crowd who cheered loudly his performance. There was never a better airshow performer than Bob Hoover.