Anthony W. LeVier (February 14, 1913 – February 6, 1998) was an American

air racer Air racing is a type of motorsport that involves airplanes or other types of aircraft that compete over a fixed course, with the winner either returning the shortest time, the one to complete it with the most points, or to come closest to a prev ...

and

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing ...

for the

Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but ot ...

from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Early life

Born Anthony Puck in

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

, his father died while he was still young. His mother, Aloysia Evans, moved Tony and his older sister Nancy to

southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

for the warmer climate. While Tony was a teenager, his mother remarried, to Oscar LeVier, who gave the children his name. From an early age, Tony LeVier had been much more interested in flying than his studies, so he dropped out of high school to pursue flying full-time. He worked odd jobs to pay for food and flying, mostly maintaining airplanes or flight instructing.

Air racing

In 1936, he began to try his hand at

air racing Air racing is a type of motorsport that involves airplanes or other types of aircraft that compete over a fixed course, with the winner either returning the shortest time, the one to complete it with the most points, or to come closest to a prev ...

, starting with the national air races in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In 1938 he flew, for the first time, a Keith Rider racer dubbed ''The Firecracker'', owned by air racing enthusiast Bill Schoenfeldt. In this plane, he won the

Greve Trophy Greve may refer to: Places * Greve (surname), includes a list of people with the name * Grevë, a village in Albania * Greve in Chianti, a town in Tuscany, Italy, at the center of the Chianti wine region * Greve Lake, Chile * Greve Municipality, a ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

that year. His landing after that flight was rough and damaged the aircraft too heavily to allow him to compete for the Thompson Trophy the next day. A year later, he was back in Cleveland, and this time placed second in the Thompson race.

Postwar air racing

After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, LeVier bought a

war surplus War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

P-38 Lightning The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive tw ...

for $1,250 in

Kingman, Arizona Kingman is a city in, and the county seat of, Mohave County, Arizona, United States. It is named after Lewis Kingman, an engineer for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. It is located southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, and northwest of Arizona's ...

. He modified it for air racing and painted it bright red. He competed at the national air races in

in 1946 and won second place in the Thompson Trophy.

Mechanic and airline pilot

After the 1939 races, LeVier got his first formal job, working as a mechanic for the

Douglas Aircraft Company The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...

, hoping to get promoted to test pilot. However, frustrated by his chances with that company, he earned an instrument rating and went to work for

Mid-Continent Airlines Mid-Continent Airlines was an airline which operated in the central United States from the 1930s until 1952 when it was acquired by and merged with Braniff International Airways. Mid-Continent Airlines was originally founded as a flight school a ...

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

. Six months later, though, he left that job also, to work with General Motors Corporation, General Motors testing engines for Cessna aircraft in Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. When a job opened for him at the Lockheed Corporation in Burbank, California, he left Wichita and returned to southern California.

Lockheed career

LeVier started at Lockheed ferrying Lockheed Hudson, Hudson bombers to Canada for delivery to the Royal Air Force. He later trained and checked out pilots in the Hudson and its transport variant, the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar, Lodestar. His job description was changed to engineering test pilot in 1942 to fly the Lockheed Ventura, PV-1 Ventura. His test flying was instrumental in proving the Lockheed P-38 Lightning design. He and chief engineering test pilot Milo Burcham alternated flying dive tests to observe the design's performance at transonic speeds. To demonstrate the reliability of the design in the hands of a skilled pilot, he performed aerobatic shows for students at the Polaris Flight school at War Eagle Field in nearby Lancaster, California, Lancaster. In 1944, LeVier visited Eighth Air Force air bases in Great Britain to demonstrate the engine-out reliability of the P-38. He left England less than a week before the invasion of Normandy.

P-80 Shooting Star

When he returned to the United States, testing of the P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter was underway. He had made the first flight of the XP-80A in January, and the testing program continued through 1944 and into 1945. In October 1944, Milo Burcham was killed in the crash of a production P-80, and Tony LeVier filled his office as chief engineering test pilot in January 1945. Just two months into his career as head of this department, he suffered a serious crash on March 20, 1945, when his P-80 lost its tail due to a faulty turbine blade. Upon landing, he broke his back and had to wear a brace during his recovery, but six months after his crash, he was back in the air. He tested two evolutions of the P-80: the T-33 Shooting Star, T-33 and the three variants of the F-94 Starfire. He also performed most of the tests of the XF-90 penetration fighter prototype. He also flew the first flights of the Lockheed XF-104, XF-104 Starfighter, and the Lockheed U-2, U-2. In 1972 LeVier took an L-1011 Tristar on a world tour promoting Lockheed's newest and largest commercial airliner. He was succeeded as chief engineering test pilot at Lockheed by Herman Salmon, Herman "Fish" Salmon. He died at the age of 84 on February 6, 1998 from complications of cancer and kidney failure, after surviving eight crashes and one mid-air collision.

Awards

* ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'' Flight Safety Award, 1971. * National Aviation Hall of Fame inductee, 1978. * National Aeronautic Association Elder Statesman Award, 1986. * National Aviation Club Clifford Henderson Award for Achievement, 1986. * Aerospace Walk of Honor inductee, 1990. * Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H. Doolittle Award, 1993 * International Air & Space Hall of Fame inductee, 1993.Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor. ''These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame''. Donning Co. Publishers, 2006. . * Godfrey L. Cabot Award, 1995. * National Air and Space Museum Trophy, National Air and Space Museum Lifetime Achievement Trophy, 1997. * He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001.Tony LeVier
at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America The Society of Experimental Test Pilots annually presents the Tony LeVier Flight Test Safety Award.

First flights

The following is an incomplete list of the first flights of a new design that were piloted or copiloted by Tony LeVier during his career at Lockheed. Photographs do not necessarily depict the first flight.

References

# Caidin, Martin. ''Fork-Tailed Devil''. Ballantine, 1968. # Cole, Duane, "The Right Start: Tony LeVier." ''AOPA Magazine'', March, 1994. * ''Pilot'' by Tony LeVier with John Guenther, 1954 (reprinted 1990).

External links

A eulogy of Tony LeVier from Edwards Spy Planes

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070828024811/http://nationalaviation.blade6.donet.com/components/content_manager_v02/view_nahf/htdocs/menu_ps.asp?NodeID=-175121541&group_ID=1134656385&Parent_ID=-1 National Aviation Hall of Fame biography]
MotorSports Hall of Fame biography

LeVier W5 Cosmic wind "Mr. Robinson"
a racing plane built in 1947, now in the collection of the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, WI {{DEFAULTSORT:Levier, Tony 1913 births 1998 deaths Lockheed people Deaths from cancer in California U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni American test pilots People from Duluth, Minnesota National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees Commercial aviators