testpilot

P-51D-30-NA, s/n 44-74739. Redesignated F-51D 1948. To RCAF as Mustang IV. Assigned to 402 Squadron 1951. To 442 Squadron. SOC RCAF 1959. Cavalier conversion 1962. Flown by Robert A. Hoover for North American Rockwell Corp, registered N51RH, 1974-1986. Damaged by wing fire 9 Aug 1984 Marysville, OH, repaired. Currently flying with Legacy Flight Museum. Rexburg, ID.

Interesting,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macready

As noted, renown aviator and Army Air Service test pilot John A. Macready. Not only was Macready distinguished as an aviator and test pilot, he's also considered by many to be the father of Aviator-style sunglasses. See: www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/magazine/who-made-those-aviato...

Who Made Those Aviator Sunglasses? By Pagan Kennedy New York Times Magazine (Page 20) - Aug. 5, 2012 Early in the 20th century, as test pilots began flying higher than Mount Everest, they had to defend themselves against temperatures as low as minus-80 degrees Fahrenheit. To survive the frigid blast, aviators wore leather hoods, and they insulated their eyes with fur-lined goggles. To lift those goggles for even an instant was to risk death. In 1920, when Shorty Schroeder dared to take a biplane above 33,000 feet, his goggles fogged and he had no choice but to pull them off. Moments later, his vision blurred, and his eyes were soon frozen over. Schroeder managed to land the plane that day, and his friend John Macready helped pull him out of the cockpit. A month later, still haunted by the memory of his friend’s swollen eyelids, Macready climbed into the same plane to beat Schroeder’s altitude record. Like Schroeder, Macready depended on goggles that had been designed to seal his eyes from the cold and protect his sight. But the early goggles were not dark enough, and “the bright sunlight in the upper atmosphere hurt his eyes,” said his daughter, Sally Macready Wallace. And so Macready began working with Bausch & Lomb to design goggles especially suited to protect against the dazzle in the stratosphere. “My dad gave Bausch & Lomb the original shape, tint and fit” of aviator lenses, Wallace said. By the late 1930s, advertisements for Bausch & Lomb’s Ray Ban sunglasses promised “real scientific glare protection” for fishermen and golfers. Not yet called aviators, the glasses nonetheless captured the essence of aviator goggles, with their teardrop shape and frames as delicate as a biplane’s struts. Sold as sporting equipment, they cost several dollars at a time when sunglasses could be had for 25 cents. During World War II, aviators became standard gear for military men, including Gen. Douglas MacArthur. . .

Thanks for the link to additional info [https://www.flickr.com/photos/danuneken] and for the interesting story about aviator sunglasses TVL1970.

Thank you for your post in : Portrait★Faces

Great pic. Haven’t seen this one in the Glamorous Glennis lineup before! 👍

On September 18, 1947, the National Security Act of 1947 created the United States Air Force (USAF) as a separate military branch. The USAF traces its roots to the early 1900s and the United States Army and the Aeronautical Division of the Signal Corps. One month later, Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager would break the sound barrier flying the Bell X-1, which he named "Glamourous Glennis" after his wife.

I met Chuck Yeager in the wee hours of the morning at Burbank Airport, in an FBO. He and I were the only two people there. That was Saturday, February 8, 1986, when he piloted a Piper Cheyenne 400 LS from Burbank Airport to La Guardia Airport in New York in 5 hours, 23 minutes. The man I met was a very approachable, humble guy. I wished him luck, as we parted.