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Tropicbird LLC
Bob Tripp
I
was born in 1937, started flying when I was 16. I graduated from the
University of
Illinois
in 1959 with a
B.S. in aeronautical engineering. After graduation I worked for
Snow
Aeronautical in
Texas
as their test pilot and structural engineer. You may know
the
company is still in business has Snow Air Tractor. Then I went to
Convair as a flight
test
engineer on their 990 project. When that closed down, I left there for
Bede Aircraft as
their
test pilot and performance engineer [this was in the days before Burt
Rutan] flying
the
XBD-2. In 1963 I transferred to the FAA ACO flight test section in
Los Angeles
for
four
years where I flew a wide variety of aircraft.
For a while things seemed
very
exciting.
I was being groomed as an SST test pilot candidate, and was the FAA
liaison
pilot
to the B-70 project, and had a chance to fly NASA's supersonic
simulator. When the B-70
crashed, and the SST program folded, I decided it was time for a
professional
change.
In
1967 I joined Western Airlines as a pilot, and spent 30 years with the
airlines, finishing
up
the last nine years with Delta. During that time I kept my DER
designation consulting with
numerous companies on the West Coast. The most dramatic project
was pre-TIA
certification
testing
of the Mini Guppy for Aerospace Lines [I had flown the Super Guppy
as
an FAA pilot]. I also did the certification testing on several turbine
conversion projects,
since that was the inauguration of the Garret/AirResearch TPE-337 and
P&W PT-6
engine installations.
Most
of my work in the last few years has been in the experimental/home built
arena,
since
that seems to be where many of the most interesting designs are arising.
Mostly
this
has been determining operating limitations and flight manual data for
airplanes such
as Lancairs, Glassairs, and Legends. In the summer of 2006 I assisted the
Eclipse
Aircraft
Company in the development and certification of their model 500A. A
current project
is, a dual STC program for Pponk Aviation, a new engine and propeller
combination[
IO-520, Hartzell Scimitar] for the Cessna 180, 182, 185 series of
airplanes,
and
new elevator and rudder bearings for the same series.
My
total time is somewhere in the range of 25,000 hours, 3000+ of that is
flight test. I
have
flown and tested over 150 types of aircraft, of note...Snow
Models A,B,C, Volpar Turboliner,
Lear 23, Heron, BD-10 Jet, Lockheed Jetstar,
AeroSpacelines
Super & Mini Guppies,
B-26, C-141, DC3, Sherpa, Lancair 4P,
and
Legend.
During my airline career, I have flown
the CV-240/340/440/, L-188, Boeing
737,
707, 720, L-1011,
DC-10, and MD-11.
I
have written for Air &Space, Airways, Airline Pilot, Pilot Journal,
Flying [June cover article], Discover Africa, American Heritage, Road
& Track, Ocean Sports, Science Digest, Invention
& Technology [Spring
2003 cover article], and my short story is the lead for
Hawai'i's
Best Spooky Stories. My novel, Last Clear Chance, was
recently published in the spring of 2008.
Email: btripp1313@gmail.com
PO Box 1896,
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
or
PO Box 418, Kekaha,
HI 96752
We live on two
islands at extreme locations in the United States. Summer is mostly
spent on San Juan Island facing Victoria in Canada. We
winter in Kekaha on the extreme west end of the island of Kaua'i.
Both of these rather remote locations have a strong sense of community and
cultural identity.
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