Robert Nietzel Buck (January 29, 1914 – April 14, 2007) broke the junior

transcontinental air speed record A transcontinental flight is a non-stop passenger flight from one side of a continent to the other. The term usually refers to flights across the United States, between the East and West Coasts. History The first transcontinental multi-stop fl ...

in 1930 and for a time was the youngest licensed pilot in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Early life

He was born in

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a city and the county seat of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New J ...

, on January 29, 1914, to Abijah Orange Buck (1869–1932) and Emily Nietzel. Emily was Abija's second wife, and she was the daughter of Elizabeth Bellingrath. In 1930 at age 16 he took lessons in a

Fleet Aircraft Fleet Aircraft was a Canadian manufacturer of aircraft from 1928 to 1957. In 1928, the board of Consolidated Aircraft decided to drop their light trainer aircraft and sold the rights to Brewster Aircraft. Reuben H. Fleet founded Fleet Aircraft in ...

using a

Kinner Kinner Airplane & Motor Corp was an airplane and engine manufacturer, founded, in the mid-1920s, in Glendale, California, United States, by Bert Kinner, the manager of Kinner Field. Kinner's chief engineer was Max B. Harlow who later founded the ...

engine. He received the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

license #13478. On October 4, 1930, he beat the junior

transcontinental airspeed record A transcontinental flight is a non-stop passenger flight from one side of a continent to the other. The term usually refers to flights across the United States, between the East and West Coasts. History The first transcontinental multi-stop fl ...

Eddie August Schneider Eddie August Henry Schneider (October 20, 1911 – December 23, 1940) was an American aviator who set three transcontinental airspeed records for pilots under the age of twenty-one in 1930. His plane was a Cessna Model AW with a Warner-Scar ...

in his PA-6

Pitcairn Mailwing The Pitcairn Mailwing family was a series of American mail carrier and three-seat sport utility biplane aircraft produced from 1927 to 1931. Design and development The Pitcairn Mailwings were developed to carry air mail for the United States P ...

he named "Yankee Clipper". His time was 23 hours and 47 minutes of elapsed flying time. The junior record only counts time in the air and excludes time spent on the ground. Robert said on February 6, 2005: "I was the youngest to fly coast to coast and that record still stands. I had my license at 16 and after that, they raised the minimum age to 17. With that change no one could break my record." In December 1933, he flew to the Yucatan with Bob Nixon. As part of that trip, they stopped in Los Angeles and spoke at a meeting of

Alpha Eta Rho Alpha Eta Rho () is a coed international professional college aviation fraternity that serves as a contact between the aviation industry and educational institutions. The fraternity strives to foster, promote, and mentor today's college students ...

, an aviation fraternity. They also participated in a cattle round up in Santa Rose, New Mexico.

Career

In 1937 he began flying for

TWA Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...

. Buck became a Captain in 1940, then was promoted to TWA's chief pilot in 1945. In September 1957, Buck piloted the first nonstop flight from Los Angeles to London, flying the long-range

Lockheed L-1649 Starliner The Lockheed L-1649 Starliner was the last model of the Lockheed Constellation line of airliners. Powered by four Wright R-3350 TurboCompound engines, it was built at Lockheed's Burbank, California plant from 1956 to 1958. Design and developme ...

; the following year, he wrote an extensive description of the flight published by ''Air Facts'' magazine. In 1965 he flew around the world from pole to pole in a

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...

. This was done with several other pilots in shifts. In 1970 he flew TWA's first

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

Flight 800 Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA800) was a Boeing 747-100 that exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 8:31pm. Eastern Daylight Time, EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. K ...

from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and in the same year wrote ''

Weather Flying Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the tr ...

''.

Personal life

Buck married Jean Pearsall in 1938. He retired from

at age 60 on January 28, 1974 and moved to Vermont, where he wrote ''Flying Know-How'', ''Art of Flying'', and ''Pilot's Burden''. He died on April 14, 2007, in

Berlin, Vermont Berlin ( ) is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States, founded in 1763. The population was 2,849 at the 2020 census. Being the town between Barre and Montpelier, the two largest cities in the region, much of the commercial business ...

, after complications from an accidental fall.

Legacy

He was inducted into the

Aviation Hall of Fame of New Jersey The Aviation Hall Of Fame & Museum of New Jersey was founded in 1972 and preserves New Jersey's aviation and space heritage. The museum displays historic aircraft, space equipment, artifacts, photographs, art and an aircraft model collection. The ...

in 1981.

Publications

* * * * *

References

External links

Robert Nietzel Buck
at Valley Reporter
Robert Nietzel Buck
at

Times Argus The ''Barre Montpelier Times Argus'' is a daily morning newspaper serving the capital region of Vermont. It was established in 1897. The newspaper claims that "80% of all adults in the Barre/Montpelier area read the Times Argus for local news, s ...

Robert Nietzel Buck
at Davis-Monthan Airfield Register

at AVWeb * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buck, Robert Nietzel 1914 births 2007 deaths Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in Vermont Aviators from New Jersey People from Elizabeth, New Jersey People from Westfield, New Jersey American aviation record holders