Page 8 - Aerotech News and Review, April 2, 2021

High Desert Hangar Stories
Cmdr. “Duke” Windsor: A hero on a model box

by Bob Alvis Winner also! Combining the two was a
special to Aerotech News genius marketing idea, as many a kid
would feel they were getting a “two-
In today’s world, the measure of a for-one” for their dollar of allowance
person’s greatness can sometimes be money. Back in those days, model com-
measured by ending up on a box of panies were many and getting an edge
Wheaties breakfast cereal. up over a competitor meant survival in
It’s no secret that for generations be- the model-making world.
fore us, the image on that box staring The Lindberg Line of models was
at us over a bowl of cereal was there never one for super-detailed kits like
to inspire us — not to mention instill- other manufacturers, but the idea of a
ing that cool factor that had us begging 63-piece model kit was appealing to us
Mom, “Get that box with that cool per- kids who wanted to be running through
son on it!” the house as soon as possible, setting
For many of us Baby Boomers, we our own records of annoying our
had many larger-than-life figures who parents and siblings with all kinds of
had us wanting to be a “part of their noises that mimicked supersonic flight
world” (shout-out to the Little Mer- until all hours.
maid!) and it was a constant compe- One thing that was always a pretty
tition of marketing folks to stoke that cool side benefit of kits like this was
fire and get those sales. One way to the fact that we future jet jocks were
do that was to find that unique “hook” getting an education and history lesson
that would give you a one-up over the about individuals and, depending on
competition. where we lived in the country (or the
Just the other day I was going world, for that matter), about projects,
through some old boxes at my hobby men and women far from our daily
shop, and I found this 98-cent model lives.
kit from the late 1950s, and it did ex- So just imagine yourself for a mo- Photograph by Bob Alvis
actly what it was supposed to do when ment at the local hobby shop or Wool- The Lindberg Line model kit of the Thompson Trophy Winner Chance Vought F8U Crusader, feating Cmdr. Robert
it was marketed more than 50 years worths, and you are taken in by the Wilks “Duke” Windsor, Jr.
ago. Staring up at me from that box was box — its colorful artwork and those
test pilot Cmdr. Robert Wilks “Duke” two trophy winners — and you make find out just who Commander Windsor the dry lake beds of Edwards. I was a to captain to boot! I guess long before
Windsor, Jr., alongside a message that the purchase and head home. But be- was and what that Crusader did with bit surprised to see that this record in the term “Right Stuff” was coined, the
announced he was a Thompson Trophy fore you even get there, you already him at the controls, to earn that spot in the F8U Crusader happened not that far path to possible flight test glory was
winner. Along with the commander, the have the box open in the back seat of American aviation history. You didn’t away, up the road at China Lake, when determined by a clerk with a stamp
box promotes the Chance Vought F8U the car and you’re poring over the con- even feel the pain of a classroom or a Cmdr. “Duke” Windsor became the and a commander overlooking the cur-
Crusader as being a Thompson Trophy tents and reading the instructions. You teacher lecturing you, as you wanted to first pilot to fly a fully armed combat rent crop of prospects, fast-tracking the
know what this was all about! I believe aircraft over 1,000 miles per hour on a future test pilots he felt best qualified.
in a way for our generations, this was closed course. He broke the record that No need to hold up the process, just
the beginnings of hands-on learning at was held at the time by the Air Force get them in the cockpits as quickly as
a young age, much like we see today in an F-100. The F8U Crusader and possible!
with elementary level STEM education the Duke created some bragging rights But I digress here from my desire
programs. But this was not in a class- for the Navy that lasted for a while, to really just shed a light on a special
room, it was in our bedrooms and on as there was no time wasted from that time when it came to being a kid, and
our kitchen tables, where we willingly August 1956 flight, to the awarding of the cool planes and pilots that filled
made the journey to higher education that Thompson prize in September at a our days with dreams of becoming like
— and we did it most of the time with formal ceremony in Oklahoma!
our own allowance money! Reading up on Commander Wind- one of them. For Commander Windsor,
Today, even as I pored over the box sor and his military service was an- I bet it was pretty cool to see this model
and its contents, I became that kid again other eye-opener, as he pretty much kit with his picture on it and to know
and started to read up on the special oc- did everything the Navy could assign that he was, for a bit, the envy of every
casion that led to this kit’s creation and him from his beginnings in World War young kid that built models and waited
story. II on battleships, to later command- their turn for a chance to step into his
Growing up here in the Antelope ing aircraft carriers and more in his 30 boots! Gee, I wonder if the Navy knew
Valley with a dad who worked in the years of service. One funny aspect of this, as on this same box is a recruiting
aerospace industry, I was one of many his flying career was how he moved tool for the young modelers that simply
youngsters who knew that the records from combat pilot to Navy test pilot states, “Fly Navy!”
in the air more often than not came off in two months, and with a promotion Until next time, Bob out ...

Navy photograph
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Robert W. “Duke” Windsor, Jr., stands in the cockpit of
the record-setting Vought F8U-1 Crusader, Bu. No. 141345, at Armitage
Field, NAWS China Lake, Calif. On Aug. 21, 1956, at 40,000 feet over Naval
Ordnance Test Station China Lake, near Ridgecrest, Calif., Windsor flew a
production Chance Vought Aircraft F8U-1 Crusader to 1,015.428 mph — Mach
1.54 — over a 9.3-mile straight course, establishing a new National Aeronautic
Association U.S. national speed record, breaking the previous record set by
a North American Aviation F-100C Super Sabre two years earlier by 193.16
mph. Windsor was awarded the Thompson Trophy for 1956 at the National
Aircraft Show, Will Rogers Field, Okla., during the first weekend of September.
Photograph by Bob Alvis

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