HERBERT O. FISHER, Pilot 51 years - 19,351 hours, which are accident and violation free. Aviation career since 1927 include Director of Aeronautics for Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, Curtiss Wright Chief Production Test Pilot and Chief Test Pilot of Curtiss Modification Center in Buffalo, N.Y. and Chief Pilot, Propeller Division, Caldwell, N.J. and aviation airport executive for Port Authority of NY/NJ.

In the early days he was a member of the United States Army Air Corps, 309 Observation reserve squadron, Schoen Field, Ft.Benjamin, Harrison, Indiana. During 20 years with Curtiss-Wright recorded thousands of Test flight hours in C-46, Hawk 75's, P-36, Navy Helldivers, P-40 Warhawks and P-47 Thunderbolt fighters plus almost all other manufactured military propeller types.

During WW II, Curtiss-Buffalo manufactured hundreds of P-47s along with its own transports and fighters. During 13 months overseas, assisted the Engineering and Operation section of the Air Transport Command in the technique of flying and maintaining the C-46 transports. He lectured and conducted P-40 flight demonstrations to almost every fighter base in the CBI, Middle East, North and Central Africa.

As a civilian test pilot, he flew many combat missions to prove the P-40 under combat conditions. He was the first living civilian to be awarded the Air Force Air Medal by the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt. This coveted award was presented because he was credited with saving hundreds of pilots and passengers' lives as well as aircraft due to the operational procedures which he suggested be incorporated by the Commanding General of the theatre.

Utilizing a P-47 he made 100 high mach number precision dives from 38,000 feet at speeds from 500 to 590 miles per hour evaluating a series of experimental transonic and supersonic type propellers. He also conducted a program of reversing all four propellers simultaneously in f1ight on a Douglas C-54 transport, acquiring extremely high sink rates up to 15,000 feet per minute in 4 seconds after reversal. He directed a program of zero lift descents from 20,000 feet for vertical dive bombing directly on a target, utilizing a Grumman F8F Bearcat, using a reversing propeller as a dive brake. Rates of descents reached 30,000 to 35,000 feet per minute from altitude by test pilot, John Olmstead.

He is a charter member and Past President of the P-47 Thunderbolt Pilots Association, founder and first President of the P-40 Warhawk Association, Past President of the CBI Hunp Pilots Association. He was inducted into the OX5 Hall of Fame at the same time as Charles Lindbergh, received the China-Burma-India Veterans Association's Americanism Award, the General "James Doolittle Fellow" Award presented by Barry Goldwater and holds a Doctorate of Aeronautical Science from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and is a member of their International Advisory Council.

He resides in Smoke Rise, Kinnelon, New Jersey with wife, Emily, and their 33 year old son, Herb, Jr. has been Operational Supervisor of the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport for the past 7 years.