![]() ![]() They flew him out to Long Beach, California, where one Howard Hughes picked him up and took him to see the H-4 Hercules the Spruce Goose. They spent a whole day together and were not done. Hughes took George to his studio where he watched the day’s output from one of his movies with George tagging along. He was most impressed when one of the stars sat next to him and chatted as they watched the clips. I am sure he told me the name, but all I remember is that she “was the most beautiful woman I have ever met!” Made quite an impression on young George. Shortly after the war ended, he was asked to contribute his flying boat expertise to another military program. Louie Bertorelli is in the dark shirt in the middle of the last row. George Rodney is the tall man at far right. Flight test staff at Middle River in Baltimore, circa 1955. George went through military flight school and became the company test pilot. I did not think to ask him what kind of training he got in test flying, but I know he had to figure much of it out himself. Since it was his full-time job at a company that built airplanes, I know he was very focused on doing it well. In World War II, George was a new engineer working in Martin’s design organization in Baltimore. They were having a terrible time finding test pilots who could give good feedback to the engineers. One day, one of his managers said, “Since we cannot find a military pilot who can speak engineer, maybe we can take an engineer and teach him to speak pilot.” So they asked George if he would like to be a test pilot. He said, “Sure.” To run the new agency, they hired a man named George Rodney. A tall, slim, quiet and patient man, George came from the Martin company where he had been one of its first true test pilots. The world's largest private collections of historic military aircraft.In 1987 I joined NASA HQ in Washington, D.C., to help modify the Space Shuttle program after the Challenger accident. I was hired by what they called Code Q, the brand-new quality and safety organization. Before the accident, the safety related offices were all under the chief engineer and had no direct path to the Administrator and other senior leaders. Code Q was part of improving the agency’s oversight of its work. ![]() Founded and funded in 2005 by Gerald "Jerry" Yagen, the museum displays one of Museum at their private Virginia Beach Airport, you know that it is a must-see for all aviationĮnthusiast. For those of you who you who've had the opportunity to visit the Military Aviation To mark the 75th anniversary of America's involvement in World War II, I headed to Virginiaīeach, Virginia to attend the 2017 Warbirds Over the Beach air show at the Military Aviation "Where else can you go to the top of a 75 year-old control tower and watch 75 year-old airplanes take off on a grass runway?" Mike Potter, Director of the Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach, Virginia A full vesrion of this article will be published in one of our upcoming magazine issues. NOTE: This is just a summary from media day, as Saturday's event was cencelled due to rain, and we were not present for Sunday's event. Military Aviation Museum is great place to visit! ![]()
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