[Pan_Yans Wife]

First thought when I saw this posted... "I'll ping EMB!" Second thought, what an awesome landing! :)

[PLMerite]

Neat story. But why name a trohpy recognizing piloting skills after a pilot who crashed?

I'm not familiar with the circumstances surrounding the loss of the T-33, but one has to wonder...

[ChefKeith]

I would have to nominate this pilot for the PUCKER FACTOR OF THE YEAR AWARD as well.

[CapandBall]

SOLUM VOLAMUS

[Rifleman]

There is nothing that will focus your attention quite like having to land an airplane with the engine out. I have done it only once, I was way high on an approach to the little strip that used to be across the junction of I70 and i435? from the Arrowhead Sports complex in Kansas City. This was an easy thing to do as there were about a dozen radio towers within a mile of the runway so you did NOT want to be too low.

I decided to go around so I pushed the throttle in on my Luscombe, the engine went BLAT, and the prop stopped. Now this is a problem, because this particular airplane is started by tieing the tail wheel down and giving the prop a flip. Hard to do while you are 400 ft in the air. I managed to land it safely by slipping it hard (turning the airplane a little sideways by cross controlling, thus making a lot of drag to get down quicker but in a controlable way) though I used up all but about 75ft of the runway. I have always been proud of this instance of airmanship.

The point of this brag is that the U2 pilot had a problem of energy management and systems management that was about two orders of magnatude tougher than mine. Amazing performance. Outstanding combination of professionalism and nerve.