I still have to stick with Doolittle and Bob Hoover. Both of these men successfully flew the unknown and the unflyable and did so with uncanny skills.
Oops yes and another Aussie pioneer who set records Charles Kingsford Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It boils down to definitions. Brian Shul, for instance, did a lot of things (none of which were that out of the ordinary for military pilots of his era), but probably his greatest achievement in aviation was his writing and photography. Same for Ernie Gann. Does that make either of them one of the "greatest pilots?" Likewise Howard Hughes. His accomplishments in the cockpit were notable, but not really that extraordinary... but obviously he had a big impact on aviation.
It's certainly been interesting to research the names put forward in this thread and look at both the back story and if relevant post-war personal history, e.g. Erich Hartmann - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Very true. Possibly the biggest figure in German aviation history as a pilot. Many have no idea of his post war experience. And a combat record that is probably set in stone.
It seems like he had three advantages: 1) The Germans didn't rotate their guys out of combat; 2) Most of the guys he was flying against (Russians) had vastly inferior equipment; 3) For whatever reason, his unit was able to get fuel and keep flying right up until the end of the war. A lot of Luftwaffe operations were shut down by a lack of fuel in 1945.
It seems to me this list is concentrating on war time abilities as the judge of how good somebody is as a pilot. Does number of kills during combat only demonstrate all skills required of a pilot? How do we compare to pilots who did not fly in battle? Pete
very good point. That is why I thought of Jimmy Doolittle who performed flight tests on many early aircraft in the 20's and 30's and successfully flew things like the Gee Bee that, at the time, was a most unknown and dangerous airplane. He successfully flew the Curtiss R-1 seaplane to a record and performed the first "blind flying" flights ever. His contributions started long before WW2 but then, again, he performed admirably and flawlessly. Bob Hoover did some great things in WW2 but he did flight tests in a lot of stuff in peace time and was absolutely a gifted pilot in war and peace time.
I disagree. Bob Hoover, for instance, who is probably the greatest stick and rudder guy ever, had a solid war record, but if he had retired after the war and become a tractor salesman (or a cropduster), we wouldn't be talking about him. Doolittle would be on any list regardless of his war exploits. Jackie Cochran, Tex Johnston, Dora Doughtery, the Wrights, Glenn Curtiss, and Charles Lindbergh* never saw combat. I think we're talking about people who were exceptional in the areas they were involved in, or multiple areas. Exceptional success in combat, like Erich Hartmann or Nadezdha Popova, should be one area of greatness. *Lindbergh says he saw a little bit of combat while delivering P-38s to the Pacific, but he wasn't officially in the military.
No question but #1 says a lot about the abilities of some of the Germans. They managed to stay alive and in combat for a very long time. Many famous names on all sides did not.
In no particular order. The late M.G. Marion Carl USMC Ret., and the aviators assigned to VMF-221 at Midway. Commander Waldron and Torpedo 8, at the Battle of Midway. USMC aviators at Wake - VMF-211. Army Air Corps pilots stationed at P.I./Clark during the early part of WW II - 3rd and 17th Pursuit / Fighter Squadron. Flying Tiger volunteers. ^^^essentially - outnumbered, outgunned, green pilots, and outdated obsolete equipment^^^ Two years ago, I spoke to an aviator who flew the Ryan Fireball operationally - kinda kewl.
Makes you wonder if Hanna Reitsch should be on the list, because she flew (among lots of other types) the manned version of the V-1. I think you'd have to say that she and Jacqueline Cochran are the two women who would belong on a "great pilots" list. And I think that for sheer versatility, you'd have to include Eric Brown, as someone has already suggested. Trying to narrow the list down to 10 is sheer folly. A list of 20 or 25 might be quite reasonable, however.
Hannah Reitsch certainly should. Not only for her test pilot exploits, but for her sailplane and helicopter achievements.
Hartmann certainly knew how to stay alive. On one occasion documented in his autobiography, he had nearly a squadron of P-51s chasing him. He flew over his base, rolled inverted, and bailed out. He knew the Americans would not shoot at his parachute. At that time the Germans were still producing dozens of Me-109 and FW-190 derivatives in underground factories, so they had plenty of aircraft, but not many pilots. Imagine trying to train pilots when your airfield is constantly under attack by allied fighters. Bob- I chose Ira Eaker for his pre-war exploits, not his WW-2 8th AF service, where his stars kept him out of the cockpit. I am thinking of Question Mark, which was aerial refueled and flew for over 150 consecutive hours prewar. He was chief pilot.
Eric Brown (who knew her pretty well) called her ambitious and manipulative but also one of the best pilots he knew.
Chopped off very last character in that URL, corrected http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brown_(pilot) Flew 487 different different types of aircraft, and that doesn't even count variations of the same type. Also 2407 carrier landings on over 20 different carriers.. imagine that.
