Ed Kemmer's
Home page
Memories from:
Introduction
Warren Chaney
Chuck Lassen
Beth Flood
Jack McKirgan
Jean-Noel Bassior
Elliott Swanson
Marty Baumann
Christine Hood
Solar Guard Posts
|
 Cadet Memories of Ed Kemmer Commander In Chief Of the Space Patrol Chuck Lassen I have always been an aviation buff, and was a private pilot just for fun, a long time ago. Ed Kemmer was a pilot too, but a very different kind- he flew P-51 Mustangs in WWII. We talked about flying on several occasions. Here's an excerpt from a letter he sent me in 1998:  "Dear Chuck- Hey....If you can fly a Piper or a Cessna, you can fly a P-51! A little cockpit orientation....a little info on flaps, prop and mixture settings, and off you'd go! It was a dream to fly...not one bad characteristic. In fact, the German fighters would snaproll in a high speed tight turn (high speed stall)...The P-51 would shake, but stay right there....Very, very stable. So, if you got behind an ME109 or an FW190, they could only do shallow turns, so they were sitting ducks. They couldn't lose you." I was really thrilled to have this inside information from a man who actually flew that great war plane! Thank you, Ed- Clear skies and soft landings! |