Little did he know at the time that this identical machine, with a hooded cockpit cover, would be used to train WWII pilots in instrument flying. His company would go on to be the primary builder of flight simulators for most of the planes flying today. The modern local airport is named for Edwin A. Link.

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Harold S. Smith
Punta Gorda, Fla.

Udet and the Iron Man

O’Brien Browne’s excellent story about Ernst Udet in the November 1999 issue omitted a poignant detail of Udet’s suicide. In his World War I days, Udet’s leader, mentor and friend, Hermann Göring, came to be known by the nickname “Eisener,” man of iron. When Udet ended this association of over two decades by putting a bullet in his brain, he left a message for his comrade scrawled on his apartment wall: “Eisener, Du hast mich verlassen” (”Iron Man, you have forsaken me”).

William L. Shields
Woodbridge, Calif.

Credit Where It’s Due

I have always enjoyed reading Aviation History, as I find the articles entertaining and generally accurate. However, I want to point out a fact about the “Enduring Heritage” department in the November 1999 issue. The B-17F was restored for the Museum of Flight by members of the Boeing Management Association at the Boeing plant in Renton, Wash. The Museum of Flight really had little to do with the restoration. The airplane was test-flown by Boeing and then delivered to the museum. Since then it has resided outside the Museum of Flight and has not flown again.

The accomplishments of Pat Collucio and the Boeing Management Association deserve more credit than they have received in producing a restored aircraft that is as good as any assembly line production.

Harry Friedman
Memphis, Tenn.

Memories of Ken Walsh

Having just seen Stan Stokes’ tribute to Ken Walsh (”Art of Flight”) in the November issue, I hope I’m not too late in sending an attaboy for the article and the litho. Ken sent me one of his copies just a month or so before he died.

Ken could do just about anything. The first time I visited him in Santa Ana, he came out of the garage wiping his hands on a shop rag. He’d just finished rebuilding his lawnmower engine and asked, “Does your car need a tuneup?”

Unlike many (even most) aces, Ken was a student of aviation history. He could converse knowledgeably about the evolution of fighter aviation, including foreign air arms and personalities. He just loved gunnery and never tired of discussing it, which was one reason I asked him to write the foreword to my 1979 history of the Corsair.

It’s not well known that Ken was one of a handful of Marine Corps landing signal officers. Although he never deployed as an LSO aboard a carrier, he shared that rare status with another ace, Bob Galer.

Largely, though, I remember what a genuinely nice man he was. He usually phoned me on my birthday and never lacked for time to talk. I last saw him at Marion Carl’s memorial service. We made plans to get together that fall, but five weeks later he was suddenly taken from us. There’s a lesson for all of us: Savor the old warriors, for they are fading fast.

Barrett Tillman
Mesa, Ariz.

College Park’s Contributions

I particularly enjoyed the article about College Park, Md., by Charles Spence in the January 2000 issue (”Enduring Heritage,”) because of my interest in pioneer aviation, especially as it relates to Louis Blériot and his Type XI monoplane. However, I would like to set the record straight about two of Henry H. “Hap” Arnold’s early flights at College Park.

First, the article refers to the latter part of 1911 when he piloted an aircraft “to the then amazing speed of 42 miles per hour.” Two years earlier, on August 24, 1909, Louis Blériot set a world speed record of 46.18 mph. In 1910, Claude Grahame-White won the James Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup in a Blériot XI monoplane at 61.2 mph at Belmont Park, N.Y. By June 1911, the speed record had been raised to 77 mph by Alfred Leblanc, also flying a Blériot XI.

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