Leo Loudenslager
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Template wrapper".Template:Compare image with WikidataScript error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters". Leo Loudenslager (January 24, 1944 – July 28, 1997) was an American aviator. He is one of two aviators to have won seven national aerobatic titles[1] and is one of only three Americans to win the World Aerobatics Championship title.
Biography
Leonard "Leo" Loudenslager was born 24 January 1944, the son of Harry Cameron Loudenslager and Margaret F (Kirkpatrick) Loudenslager. The family resided in Columbus, Ohio. Loudenslager served in the Air Force as a B-52 mechanic.[2] He was stationed at Travis Air Force Base in 1964 when he took leave to attend the first Reno Air Races, where he was inspired to become a pilot. He took flying lessons at the Travis Air Force Base flight club, where one of his instructors was Dick Rutan.[3] In 1966, he joined American Airlines as a first officer. He worked for that airline for the rest of his life.
He completed building a Stephens Akro aerobatic plane in 1970 and competed in his first competition the next year. A series of modifications to the plane, tail number N10LL, culminated in the rechristening of the plane as the Laser 200 in 1975.[4] With the Laser 200, he won seven United States Aerobatic Championships[5] and the 1980 World Aerobatics Championship. He was one of the pilots featured in the 1980 aerobatics movie Cloud Dancer.
Loudenslager also flew in air shows, notably the Sussex Airshow at his home airport in Sussex County, New Jersey.[6] In addition to his Laser 200, he also flew a Bede BD-5J;[7] both aircraft were sponsored by Bud Light.
In later years, Loudenslager's base of operation was at Thompson's Station, Tennessee, approximately Script error: No such module "convert". from Nashville.
Marriage and children
Loudenslager had two children, Kelly and Carolyn, from his marriage to former flight attendant Susan, from whom he was divorced.
Death and afterward
On June 28, 1997, a car crossed the center line and collided head-on with his motorcycle on U.S. Route 31 near his home in Tennessee. He died a month later in hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.[8]
Loudenslager's plane, the Laser 200, was donated to the Smithsonian in 1999.[9] It was on display at the National Air and Space Museum from October 2001 through April 2003 as part of the Aerobatic Champions temporary exhibit[10] and has been on permanent display in the museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center since December 2003. Twenty members of the US House of Representatives signed a letter objecting to the plane's Bud Light emblems remaining on the plane,[11] but the museum stood by its position of not altering artifacts except for repair.[12]
The International Council of Air Shows Foundation maintains a scholarship in his name, which is given in rotation to an enlisted member of the US Navy Blue Angels, the US Air Force Thunderbirds or the Canadian Forces Snowbirds to be used toward the cost of flight training.
Awards
- 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982: United States Aerobatic Champion
- 1980: World Aerobatics Champion
- 1982: New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame
- 1990: Bill Barber Award for Showmanship, World Airshow News magazine
- 1990: Clifford W. Henderson Achievement Award, Cleveland National Air Show[13]
- 1991: ICAS Art Scholl Showmanship Award
- 1991: International Aerobatics Hall of Fame [14]
- 1994: ICAS Sword of Excellence
- 1998: ICAS Air Show Hall of Fame [15]
- Victor Award, National Academy of Sports Editors
See also
References
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- ↑ Gustafson, D.A., 'Leo Loudenslager, Archetype of Aerobatic Pilots', EAA Sport Aviation, January 1985.
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- ↑ Loudenslager Laser 200 entry in the National Air and Space Museum Collections Database.
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See also
External links
- Template:Trim/ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Landings: Opinions: Leo Loudenslager Memorial
- Loudenslager/Zivko Shark aircraft
- Flying Leo's Stephens Akro
- Stephens AkroScript error: No such module "Unsubst". (details some of the modifications made by Loudenslager)
- Teaching IAC Judges' School to Chapter 52 at Poughkeepsie, NY, 1980
