THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609170432
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 83 lines
Navy Capt. Robert L. ``Hoot'' Gibson doesn't fly as high these days as he once did.
Normally, Gibson hangs out in pure space, about 500 miles up. He's logged 36 1/2 days up there so far.
But the deputy director of NASA's flight crew operations and five-time space shuttle commander and pilot needs real air to fly his latest toy - a Russian MiG-21.
Anything under 10 miles in altitude usually works.
He'll test the air over Hampton Roads this weekend, when he brings the single-engine, two-seat Russian fighter to Oceana Naval Air Station for the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival air show.
More than 80 aircraft will be on display Saturday and Sunday. Gibson will rocket through a sky also filled with the six-plane ``Lima Lima'' civilian flight team, flying T-34 Mentors. Several military aircraft, parachute teams and ground shows will perform as well.
The Mig-21, a 1950s-vintage aircraft that continues to serve the air forces of India and a few other countries, was built by the Soviets as a short-range interceptor. It is a contemporary of the F-4 Phantom that America flew through the Vietnam era.
For Gibson, who has been flying something or other since he was 16, the MiG-21 is a treat.
``It's a neat airplane and exciting to fly,'' he said from his office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. ``It has some pretty good horsepower for an engine built back in the '50s.''
Owned by Don Kirlin of Boulder, Colo., it was purchased with private funds several years ago from the Russians.
``MiGs - actually any Russian airplane - are very much available on the open marketplace,'' said Gibson. ``The Russians are economically disadvantaged at the moment and they will sell anything.''
This isn't the first time Gibson has messed around with Russian aircraft.
Formerly NASA's chief astronaut - now he's the chief astronaut's boss - the 49-year-old aviator commanded the Atlantis Space Shuttle's first-ever rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir in June-July 1995. He took a crew of seven up and brought eight back in the exchange of crews.
That was his fifth, and most likely last, space mission.
``My flying days with the shuttle are about over,'' he said. ``I could continue to fly, but I voluntarily decided I don't need to fly again. I've been up five times now and done one of just about everything.
``At some point you have to say, `I've been greedy enough.' It's time to get out of the way and give the young folks a turn.''
Gibson's first flight was as an infant, when he lived in Cooperstown, N.Y.
``Dad and Mom were both pilots,'' he said. ``Dad was in the Army Air Corps. He flew the air mail when the Army (was responsible for) that in the '30s. They have newspaper articles about me when I was flying with him at 6 months old. I just grew up around planes.''
He soloed on his 16th birthday, graduated from California Polytechnic State University in 1969 with a degree in aeronautical engineering and entered the Navy. He flew fighters from the carriers Coral Sea and Enterprise during Vietnam, then became an F-14 Tomcat instructor and test pilot.
He has amassed more than 6,000 flight hours in 50-odd types of civilian and military aircraft.
In 1978 Gibson became an astronaut. His first space flight, as pilot of the space shuttle Challenger, came in February 1984. After that, he commanded the orbiter Columbia, then the Atlantis, then the Endeavour.
He has flown the MiG-21 since 1990 and first flew this one in June. He's one of the few people qualified by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly one.
``There aren't that many people in the U.S. with a rating in the MiG-21,'' he said. ``The FAA is a little bit reluctant to issue letters to everybody - and with good reason.
``It is a hot airplane.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The Naval Institute Guide to World Military Aviation
Navy Capt. Robert L. ``Hoot'' Gibson will soar over Hampton Roads
during this weekend's air show in a Soviet-built MiG-21 fighter
similar to this model. The 1950s-vintage aircraft is a contemporary
of the F-4 Phantom that Americans flew through the Vietnam era.
Graphic
ROBERT L. ``HOOT'' GIBSON
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] by CNB