[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 2, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6013-S6014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        TRIBUTE TO STEVE WITTMAN

 Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, true pioneers are rare and 
special individuals. They inspire us with their vision, their energy, 
their skill and their ability to lead.
  Today I am sad to report the passing of one such pioneer, the 
legendary aviator Sylvester Joseph Wittman. Mr. Wittman and his wife, 
Paula, died in an airplane crash on Sand Mountain, in northeastern 
Alabama last Thursday night. They were flying in an airplane that Mr. 
Wittman had designed and built from their winter home in Ocala, Florida 
to their home in Oshkosh, Wisconsin when the accident occurred.
  [[Page S6014]] Many successful people like to go by the book. Steve 
Wittman, as he preferred to be called, helped write the book. His life 
practically traced the history of aviation. He took wing in the spit-
and-bailing-wire era and never stopped contributing to his beloved 
calling even as we began flying farther, higher, and faster in more 
complex machines.
  He was born in the year after the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk. 
His flying career began in 1924, when he and a partner bought an 
airplane, and he taught himself to fly. His first pilot's license was 
signed by Orville Wright.
  For 70 years, he designed, built and flew airplanes as a barnstormer, 
a test pilot and a racer, and he was one of the founders of the 
Experimental Aircraft Association, the Oshkosh-based organization that 
does so much to promote the love and the joy of flying.
  The Winnebago County airport in Oshkosh, which Mr. Wittman managed 
from 1931 until 1969, is named Wittman Field in his honor.
  Buster, a red single-engined midget racer Mr. Wittman built and flew 
is currently on display in the Golden Age
 of Flight Gallery in the West Wing of the National Air and Space 
Museum. Buster, originally named Chief Oshkosh, raced successfully for 
23 years, beginning in 1931.

  He was a superb pilot, and stories about his skill are legion, even 
though he was reluctant to tell them himself. One of the more famous 
incidents occurred as he and a friend were flying over Tennessee. A 
trigger-happy rifleman had put a .22 calibre slug into Mr. Wittman's 
gas tank, and the fumes almost asphyxiated him. He managed to get his 
ship down safely, a bit of flying his partner barely completed though 
fully conscious.
  He kept the slug as a souvenir.
  Mr. Wittman set several speed records, and it would be hard to find a 
significant air racing event he had not entered. It wasn't unusual for 
him to fly home with the winner's trophy. He entered his last closed-
course pylon race in 1989. At the age of 85, he won one heat, finished 
second in another and then came in third in the final race.
  By the way, he did all this with vision in only one eye. He had lost 
the other in an accident when he was young.
  In addition to his brilliant and storied racing career, he also 
contributed greatly to the common body of knowledge of the aviation 
community. Although he had no formal engineering training, he was often 
ahead of the curve in aviation design, and he never stopped looking for 
clues to better performance. He designed a landing gear that has been 
installed on over 100,000 airplanes.
  One of his airplanes, the Wittman Tailwind, is a design that is still 
being flown by private pilots all over the world.
  His self-developed talents were so impressive, he was made an 
honorary member of the elite Society of Experimental Test Pilots, a 
rare achievement.
  He had his share of bumps and bruises in crashes along the way, but 
at 91, he was still flying.
  He did all this with modesty and gentlemanly character, and he was a 
man who enjoyed life at a level most of us never approach.
  As Tom Crouch, chairman of the Aviation Department at the Air and 
Space Museum put it, ``If anybody in the history of aviation could be 
called a legend, it would sure be him.''
  Our condolences go out to Mr. Wittman's relatives, friends, fellow 
aviators and to all those who were inspired by this true 
pioneer.


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