"Red Ball in The Sky" authored by Charles Blair
Maureen married General Charles Blair, the love of her life in 1968. Although he was
tragically killed in a plane crash ten years later, he brought to Maureen the
happiest years of her life. Following is a biography supplied by Maureen of her
beloved Charles.
To Charles Blair flying was much more than a fast way to get from one place to "The sky is full of new frontiers," he once wrote and he never ceased believing that. Throughout his long and colorful career, the frontiers of the sky were a constant challenge. A senior pilot for Pan American World Airways for 29 years including 10 years
with American Overseas Airlines (which merged with Pan Am), and for another
major US airline before that. Captain Blair was one of the most experienced
airmen in commercial aviation. Yet through the years he found time to test dozens
of new aircraft, survey new air routes to the far corners of the globe, and develop
scores of new navigational and operational techniques; to serve as a respected
advisor to aircraft manufacturers and the US military; to found and operate two
successful airlines of his own; to write books and magazine articles about aviation;
and to set an impressive series of flying records, some of which have never been
equaled.For his achievements, Captain Blair became one of the most honored flyers
in history. With his untimely death in a crash of an Antilles Air Boats plane
off St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1978, aviation lost an
outstanding leader.The following pages present the highlights in the extraordinary life of this
extraordinary man.Charles F. Blair was born in Buffalo, New York on July 19, 1909. He
learned to fly at the Ryan Flying School in San Diego, California, and he
soloed there in 1928 at the age of 19.In 1931, after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical
Engineering from the University of Vermont, young Blair entered the Naval
Flying School at Pensacola, Florida. He graduated the following year
August 16, 1932 with Naval Aviator designation #4748 and the rank of
Ensign in the United States Naval Reserve. Shortly afterward, he was
assigned to Patrol Squadron VP-7F, Naval Air Station, North Island, San
Diego, California.After his release from active duty in 1933, he flew for seven years with
United Airlines, pioneering mail routes in the rugged U.S. West. In 1940,
he was named chief pilot of a newly formed overseas airline, American
Export Airlines, later to be known as American Overseas Airlines. All of
the airline's survey flights and first scheduled flights between the United
States and the British Isles, Africa and South America were made under
his command - as was the first nonstop commercial flight across the
Atlantic, which he made in a Sikorsky VS-44 flying boat. He also
employed and trained all of the airline's pilots.During World War II, Captain Blair flew for both NATS (Naval Air
Transport) and the Air Transport Command. He also flew as production
test pilot for the Grumman Aircraft Company testing the F6F, F7F and the
F8F Navy fighters, and he flew the original Martin Mars flying boat as
consulting test pilot. In 1943, he proposed and flew the first North Atlantic
winter airline operations flight nonstop between the United States and the
British Isles, again in a VS-44. In 1944 he was pilot in command of the
five fastest seaplane crossings of the Atlantic on five consecutive trips. His
best time: 14 hours and 17 minutes.After the war, Captain Blair commanded the early proving and the first
scheduled flights of Lockheed Constellations and Boeing Stratocruisers on
the transatlantic routes of American Overseas Airlines. In his spare time,
he owned and operated Associated Air Transport, Inc., a small
non-scheduled airline flying between New York and Europe, the Middle
East and South America. Most of the flights were made in a single,
personally owned "long-range" C-46. After 16 million "uneventful"
passenger miles, the company was sold.Captain Blair became a Pan Am pilot when AOA merged with Pan
American World Airways in 1950.That same year, he purchased from Paul Mantz, a well-known Los Angeles
flyer, a single-engine P-51 Mustang fighter in which Mantz had won the
Bendix Trophy in 1946 and 1947. Although its technical characteristics
remained essentially those of a standard P-51, Captain Blair made a
number of modifications, including the installation of a more efficient
Rolls-Royce 1650-HP Merlin engine, long-range fuel tanks and special
navigation equipment.(It was later revealed that he bought the plane only after the U.S. Air Force
had refused to lend him one of theirs because they considered the missions
he had in mind were "impossible").On January 31, 1951, Captain Blair flew his Mustang - which he had
named "Excalibur III' non-stop from "New York to London's Heathrow
Airport. One objective of the flight was to test the effects of the
then-relatively unknown high-altitude phenomenon called the "jet stream."
Captain Blair encountered the high-velocity westerly winds at 37,000 feet
precisely as he had planned, and the resulting tail wind, in his words,
"blew me to London." He covered the 3,478 statute miles at an average
speed of 446 miles an hour. His elapsed time of seven hours and 48
minutes set a record for a transatlantic crossing by a piston engine plane
that still stands.Four months later, on May 29, Captain Blair took off in this same Mustang
from Bardutoss, Norway and headed for Fairbanks, Alaska. It was the first
solo flight over the Arctic and the North Pole, and the first by a
single-engine aircraft. On this 3,260 mile nonstop flight, which took ten
hours and 27 minutes, he proved the accuracy and practicability of a
system of navigation that he had developed for flying in polar regions. (He
also took care of a personal errand. As he flew over the Pole, he dropped
from the cockpit window a letter from his young son Chris, addressed to
"Santa Claus.")These achievements did not go unrecognized. At a White House ceremony
the following year, Captain Blair received the coveted Harmon
International Aviation Award as "the world's outstanding aviator" from
President Harry S. Truman. He was also awarded the Gold Medal of the
Norwegian Aero Club, only the 16th time in 43 years anyone had been so
honored."Excalibur III" the scarlet P-51 in which he had made his historic flights, is
on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C.Captain Blair resigned from the Naval Reserve in 1952 to accept an Air
Force commission while he was working with a U.S. Strategic Air Force
fighter wing. He was commissioned a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve in
April 1953, and was promoted to Brigadier General in July 1959.
Although these were Reserve ranks, he worked primarily with the Active
Air Force.Between 1953 and 1958, Captain Blair spent between 150 and 200 days a
year in a combination of active Air Force duty status, reserve drills, and as
a consultant to the Director of Operations, Headquarters, U.S. Air Force.
During the 1950's and 60's, he flew most of the Air Force's first-line
aircraft, making numerous supersonic and Mach 2 flights; was involved in
various low altitude navigation and weapons delivery programs; and
engaged in air-to-air gunnery exercises, including successful firings of the
GAR-8 and GAR-10 missiles. In 1956, he commanded three F84F tactical
fighters in "Operation Shark Bait," the first non-stop flight of jet fighters
across the Atlantic, using the Great Circle Route.From 1957 to 1960, Captain Blair worked with the office of the U.S.
Assistant Secretary o f Defense for Research and Engineering on a new,
light-weight, all-weather, low-cost navigation system for low-level NATO
strike fighter operations. His proposed system was successfully tested. In
June 1959, he received the Thurlow International Award of the Institute of
Navigation for his "outstanding contribution to the science of navigation."In August 1959, he commanded two F-100s in "Operation Julius Caesar," a
nonstop flight from Weathershield RAF Station, England to Eielson Air
Force Base, Alaska - the first jet fighter flight over the North Pole. The
purpose of the flight was to test the feasibility of deployment routes
between the Far East and Europe for jet fighter-bombers, and also to test
automatic Doppler navigation system performance. The F-100s refueled in
mid-air three times during the 9-* hour flight, the final time directly over
the Pole. For commanding this operation, Captain Blair was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross.In 1962, Captain Blair added to his responsibilities by joining the U.S.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a consultant on
operational and navigational problems related to proposed supersonic
transport aircraft.In the late 1960's he wrote a book, "Red Ball in the Sky," which was published by
Random House. He had previously co-authored with A.J. Wallis a novel about
flying, "Thunder Above," that was made into a British motion picture. His
magazine articles appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Readers Digest, True,
Popular Science, Flying and many other publications.Throughout this very active period of his career, Captain Blair continued
to serve his regular tours of duty as a Pan Am senior pilot. One of the first
airline pilots to fly the new jet transports, he commanded Pan Am's Boeing
707s on the airlines round-the-world schedule between New York and the
Far East via Europe, and to Rio and Buenos Aires on its South American
routes.In 1969, at the age of 60, Captain Blair retired from Pan Am. His flying
days were not over, however. In 1964, foreseeing the potential for
passenger traffic in the Caribbean, he had invested in a Navy surplus
Grumman "Goose" seaplane and founded Antilles Air Boats, Inc.., based in
St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. When he retired from Pan Am, he
decided to personally head his airline's operations, expand its fleet and
services, and served as one of its pilots, as well as its president. Antilles
Air Boats prospered and grew. By 1977, it had a fleet of 23 amphibious
aircraft - 19 Grumman Gooses, two Grumman Mallards and two UK-built
Sandringhams - and was offering 120 flights a day to destinations
throughout the Caribbean and carrying more than 250,000 passengers a
year. While it billed itself as "the world's largest seaplane airline,"
Antilles Air Boats was also known as "The Streetcar Line of the Virgin
Islands." Captain Blair, in addition to running the company, was flying
between 40 and 50 hours a month. By this time, Captain Blair could look
back on 46 years as a military and commercial pilot, during which time he
had logged more than 10 million miles and 45,000 hours at the controls of
aircraft ranging from small single-engine propeller planes to giant
globe-circling jets, and he had commanded 1,575 Atlantic crossings.Then, on September 2, 1978, tragedy struck. Captain Blair was piloting a
Grumman Goose from St. Croix to St. Thomas when his plane developed
engine trouble and crashed. He was killed instantly.Charles F. Blair, as a Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve,
was buried with full military honors on September 11 at Arlington
National Cemetery outside of Washington, D.C. Survivors included his
wife, Maureen O'Hara Blair, whom he married in 1968, and four children
from two previous marriages: Suzanne, Christopher, Charles Lee and
Stephen.The most recent of many tributes to Captain Blair was the unveiling of a
memorial in his honor at Heathrow Airport in London, terminus of his
1951 record-breaking transatlantic flight. Consisting of a large-scale
replica of his famous Mustang, Excalibur III, the memorial was dedicated
on January 30, 1981. Present at this ceremony were Captain Blair's
widow, who performed the unveiling; representatives of Pan Am and other
companies; aviation notables; the press; and many of Captain Blair's
friends. Plaques located near the memorial give the highlights of Captain
Blair's career and constitute a permanent record of his achievements. This
memorial was made possible by contributions from Captain Blair's friends
and fellow employees of Pan Am."The sky is full of new frontiers." The career of Charles F. Blair was a
living expression of that philosophy and of his love of flying. His life will
always be an inspiration to flyers everywhere.
Essay copyright 1997, Maureen O'Hara Blair
(cannot be reproduced or published without permission of Ms. Blair)
