Charles F. Blair Jr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles F. Blair Jr (born Buffalo, New York 19 July 1909 died 2 September 1978) was a United States Air Force Brigadier General, United States Navy aviator Captain, a test pilot, an airline pilot, and airline owner. He died in a Grumman Goose seaplane crash in the Caribbean.
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[edit] Biography
Charlie Blair learned to fly in San Diego and made his first solo at the age of 19. In 1931, Blair earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont. The following year Blair was commisioned an Ensign as a Naval Aviator. He reamined in the Naval Reserves whilst flying 7 years for United Airlines. In 1940 Blair beame a chief pilot where he trained the pilots of American Export Airlines, later renamed American Overseas Airlines.
In World War II Captain Blair flew with the Naval Air Transport Service and the Air Transport Command as well as being a test pilot for Grumman Aircraft testing the F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, and F8F Bearcat U.S. Navy fighter planes and Martin Mars flying boat.
Following the war, Blair commanded testing and the first scheduled flights of the Lockheed Constellation and Boeing Stratocruiser airliners of American Oversas Airlines as well as owning and operating Associated Air Transport, Inc.
American Overseas Airlines merged with Pan American World Airways in 1950 with Blair becoming a Pan Am pilot.
On 31 January 1951 Captain Blair flew a P-51 Mustang that was awarded the Bendix Trophy in 1946 and 1947 that he had purchased from Paul Mantz non stop from New York to London to test the jet stream. Blair flew 3.478 miles at an average speed of 446 miles per hour in seven hours and 48 minutes setting a record for a piston engine plane.[1] On 29 May of the same year Captain Blair flew from Bardufoss, Norway to Fairbanks, Alaska fling 3.260 non stop miles across the North Pole. Captain Blair was awarded the Harmon Trophy from President Truman and the Gold Medal of the Norwegian Aero Club. The scarlet P-51 that Blair renamed "Excalibur III" is on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
Blair resigned his Naval Commission in 1952 and was later commissioned a Colonel in the United States Air Force Reserves whilst still flying for Pan Am. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1959. In the same year he commanded two F-100 Super Sabre fighter planes in a nonstop flight from England to Alaska the first jet fighter flight over the North Pole earning the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States).
Brigadier Blair became a consultant to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1962. He retired from Pan Am in 1969, founding Antilles Air Boats based in St Croix with the idea of having a flying boat service from New York to and throughout the Caribbean. Blair purchased flying boats from the Qantas Sydney to Lord Howe Island service for this service.
In 1968, Blair married the actress Maureen O'Hara who he had first met on a flight to Ireland in 1947[2]. He authored his autobiography Red Ball in the Sky in 1970 and coauthored a novel with A.J Wallis in 1956 Thunder Above that was filmed as Beyond the Curtain in 1960. A reproduction of Blair's red P-51 is on the roof of the Queen's Building at Heathrow airport.
Blair is buried in Arlington National Cemetary.
[edit] Quotes
"The sky is full of new frontiers"
[edit] Reference
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/cfblair.htm
