Tony LeVier
| Anthony W. LeVier | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born |
February 14, 1913 Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | February 6, 1998 (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Anthony W. "Tony" LeVier (February 14, 1913 – February 6, 1998) was an air racer and test pilot for the Lockheed Corporation from the 1940s to the 1970s.
Born Anthony Puck in Duluth, Minnesota, his father died while he was still young. His mother, Aloysia Evans, moved Tony and his older sister Nancy to southern California for the warmer climate. While Tony was a teenager, his mother remarried, to Oscar LeVier, who gave the children his name.
From an early age, Tony LeVier had been much more interested in flying than his studies, so he dropped out of high school to pursue flying full-time. He worked odd jobs to pay for food and flying, mostly maintaining airplanes or flight instructing.
In 1936, he began to try his hand at air racing, starting with the national air races in Los Angeles. In 1938 he flew, for the first time, a Keith Rider racer dubbed The Firecracker, owned by air racing enthusiast Bill Schoenfeldt. In this plane, he won the Greve Trophy in Cleveland that year. His landing after that flight was rough and damaged the aircraft too heavily to allow him to compete for the Thompson Trophy the next day. A year later, he was back in Cleveland, and this time placed second in the Thompson race.
After the end of World War II, LeVier bought a war surplus P-38 Lightning for $1,250 in Kingman, Arizona. He modified it for air racing and painted it bright red. He competed at the national air races in Cleveland in 1946 and won second place in the Thompson Trophy.
After the 1939 races, LeVier got his first formal job, working as a mechanic for the Douglas Aircraft Company, hoping to get promoted to test pilot. However, frustrated by his chances with that company, he earned an instrument rating and went to work for Mid-Continent Airlines in Kansas City. Six months later, though, he left that job also, to work with General Motors testing engines for Cessna aircraft in Wichita. When a job opened for him at the Lockheed Corporation in Burbank, California, he left Wichita and returned to southern California.
...
Wikipedia