Page 6 - Aerotech News and Review, February 18, 2022

Reminisces of Tony LeVeir:
The extraordinary life of a distinctive test pilot

by Cathy Hansen of school and hung out at the local
special to Aerotech News airport, doing whatever he could to
earn a little money to pay for flying
Born in Duluth, Minn., on Valen- lessons. He was completely driven to
tine’s Day, Feb. 14, 1913, Anthony learn to fly.
‘Tony’ LeVeir began life with the last His first job was with the Whittier
name of Puck. Airways Company as a night watch-
When his father passed away, To- man and mechanic, making $100 a
ny’s mother moved her two children month. “$80 for flying lessons and
to California for warmer weather. She $20 to live on,” said LeVeir. “I never
remarried when Tony and his sister dreamed of being a test pilot,” he
were teenagers and her new husband, said. “I wanted to be an air mail pi-
Oscar LeVeir, gave the children his lot and an airline pilot, but I couldn’t
name. pass the physical examination.” As it
During several interviews, Tony turned out, for some reason it was an
LeVeir recounts the epic 1927 flight erroneous exam result. Years later, the
of Charles Lindbergh crossing the At- required test for checking heart func-
lantic Ocean to Paris, France, as his tion was changed to an EKG. He tried
inspiration to learn to fly. Upon hear- again and he passed.
ing the news of Lindbergh’s flight he Courtesy photograph Over a two year period before he Photograph by Dan Sabovich
proclaimed to his mother, “I’m go- Test pilot Tony LeVeir. soloed, he had six different instruc- Al Letcher and Tony LeVeir
ing to become an airplane pilot!” His tors. After earning his pilot’s license,
ever-supportive mother said, “That’s he received his Commercial License
wonderful Tony, just remember to be lesson for $5. “That started my flying in 1932, when he was 19 years old. and checked out pilots in the Hudson Light System for aircraft, the univer-
a good one.” Obviously those words career,” said Tony. In 1936, he started air racing, first and its transport variant, the Lode- sally used system on most aircraft in
from his mother stayed with him “I was totally devoted, 100 percent in Los Angeles and then in Cleveland, star. His job description was changed the world.
throughout his life. devoted to aviation,” he said during Ohio. He also flew in the Thompson to engineering test pilot in 1942, to The following information was
While at an event in Hawthorne, the interview. “I could think of noth- Air Race in Cleveland, winning the fly the PV-1 Ventura. His test fly- published after LeVier’s passing: “In
Calif., he recalled how as a teenager, ing else and I think that is what carried Greve Trophy. ing was instrumental in proving the 1954, the XF-104 Starfighter roared
he was going down the aisle of the me through all these years.” He gave LeVeir told great stories of his Lockheed P-38 Lightning design. He aloft on its maiden flight. Called “The
Balboa Theater on July 4 and spotted credit to his supportive mother and flight experiences lacing them with and chief engineering test pilot Milo Missile With a Man In It,” LeVier
what he thought was a dollar bill. He father. He said, “That kept me going, many expletives. In the 1960s and Burcham alternated flying dive tests, used it to become the first man to ex-
and his friend were barefoot, so he too, and I just fell into one good thing 1970s, he was a regular at Mojave to observe the design’s performance at ceed 1000 miles per hour. The F-104
picked it up with his toes. “I unrav- after another. Airport, visiting with General Man- transonic speeds. To demonstrate the
eled it and it was a $10 bill,” Tony “I have to give credit to so many ager Dan Sabovich and other pilots reliability of the design in the hands of became the standard bearer of the
said. “The first thing that came into people who helped me,” Tony said. up and down the flightline. a skilled pilot, he performed aerobatic Free World, and 15 countries adopted
my mind was to take a flying lesson “I was an airport brat, a grease mon- Al Letcher had the first Hawker shows for students at the Polaris Flight it as their superiority fighter. For the
the next day.” key. I was the ‘go-fer’ at the airport. Hunter to be flown into the United Academy at War Eagle Field in Lan- next ten years, LeVier managed Lock-
He went to Santa Ana Airport to I did everything, I learned to work States and LeVeir had to sit in it and caster, Calif., at the corner of present- heed’s Starfighter Utilization Reli-
get his flying lesson, but they said he on engines and airplanes; I was an share flying stories with his friend. day Avenue I and 60th Street West. ability Effort with NATO countries,
was too young and he didn’t have a accomplished mechanic at about 16 LeVeir joined Lockheed Aircraft He was instrumental in solving contributing immeasurably to saving
student permit, which cost $10. He years old.” Company in 1941 and ferried Hudson the compressibility issue, or ‘mach lives. He also assisted famed aviatrix
left that airport and went to Whittier He was so absorbed with the bombers from California to Canada for tuck,’ that plagued the P-38 during Jackie Cochran when she set a new
and received his first 20-minute flying thoughts of flying that he dropped out the Royal Air Force. He later trained high speed diving maneuvers. Kelly world’s speed record for women.
Johnson’s team of engineers designed “LeVier flight tested Lockheed’s
a dive flap to be used while diving at top secret U-2 in 1955, which later
high speeds, so the tail of the aircraft earned banner headlines when one
would maintain its authority. was downed while making reconnais-
According to online sources, Tony sance flights over the Soviet Union.
LeVier was responsible for several LeVier’s active test pilot career ended
inventions and contributions to air-
plane ergonomics and safety. For ex- when he became Lockheed-Califor-
ample, in 1944 he conceived the idea nia’s Director of Flight Operations.
to turn the pilot’s stick grip counter- Of him, Lockheed’s famed “Kelly”
clockwise in the XP-80 to enable Johnson stated: “I like LeVier to fly
the pilot (who manipulated the stick my aircraft first because he always
with his right hand) to have better brings back the answers.” Years later,
use and control of the aircraft. The LeVier piloted a Lockheed “Tristar”
same year, he conceived the idea to from California to Washington, D.C.,
place aircraft trim switches on top of on the first completely automatic flight
the control stick grip; a design feature of a commercial plane.”
now universally used on all military LeVier retired from Lockheed in
and some civil aircraft around the 1974. During his career he distin-
world. In 1949 he conceived the first guished himself as the world’s fore-
practical afterburner ignition system most experimental test pilot. He made
for jet fighters. He also contributed to the first test flight of 20 different air-
the design refinement of the Lockheed craft and flew more than 240 different
hydraulic-boosted and full-power types, more than any pilot in history.
flight control system, used in all air-
craft since the P-38 of World War II. His first flights included many well-
Other inventions included his 1951 known aircraft, including: Lockheed
design of the automatic wing stores XP-80; Lockheed T-33; F-94AProto-
(ordnance) release for military aircraft type; F-94C Prototype; XF-104 and
to prevent aircraft crashes from asym- the U-2, to name a few.
metric loading due to malfunctions Tony LeVier died after a lengthy
Courtesy photograph (now universally used by all military illness battling cancer and kidney
Tony Leveir stands on the wing of a P-38. combat aircraft) and his 1952 inven- failure at his home in California on
tion of the Master Caution Warning Feb. 6, 1998.

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