On 05 Jan 2006 20:13:54 GMT, Blanche wrote:

:Richard Riley wrote:
:On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 16:53:24 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
:
::So we FINALLY finished the new "Piper Cub Suite" yesterday (some of that
::artwork has been in our dining room for over three years!) at our aviation
::theme suite hotel, and we're embarking on our last two aviation theme
::suites, the "Apollo Suite" and the "Oshkosh Suite" -- both which have been
::in the works for over two years.
:
:The obvious on is the DC-3 suite, but beyond that...
:
:Glenn Martin suite
:Wrong Way Corrigan suite
:Rutan suite
:RV or Van Grunsven suite
:Shuttle suite
:USS Enterprise suite
:Blue Angels/Thunderbirds suite
:Spitfire suite
:Phantom suite
:Stealth Suite
:F-22 Raptor suite
:MiG/Sukhoi suite
:Top Gun suite
:
:Please don't do a UAV suite.
:
efinitely need to do a Star Trek suite.

Gene Roddenbery was a heck of a good pilot.

"Gene Roddenberry led a life as colorful and exciting as almost any
high- adventure fiction. He was born in El Paso, Texas, on August 19,
1921, spent his boyhood in Los Angeles, studied three years of college
pre-law and then transferred his academic interest to aeronautical
engineering and qualified for a pilot's license. He volunteered for
the U.S. Army Air Corps in the fall of 1941 and was ordered into
training as a flying cadet as the war began.

Emerging from Kelly Field, Texas, as a Second Lieutenant, Roddenberry
was sent to the South Pacific where he entered combat at Guadalcanal,
flying B-17 bombers out of the newly-captured Japanese airstrip, which
became Henderson Field. He flew missions against enemy strongholds at
Bougainville and participated in the Munda invasion. In all, he took
part in 89 missions and sorties. He was decorated with the
Distinguished flying Cross and the Air Medal.

While in the South Pacific, he also began to write. He sold stories to
flying magazines, and later poetry to publications including The New
York Times. Upon his return from combat, he became a trouble-shooter
for the Air Force working out of Washington, D.C., investigating the
causes of air crashes. At war's end, he joined Pan American World
Airways. During this time, he also studied literature at Columbia
University.

It was on a flight from Calcutta that his plane lost two engines and
caught fire in flight, crashing at night in the Syrian desert. As the
senior surviving officer, Roddenberry sent two Englishmen swimming
across the Euphrates River in quest of the source of a light he had
observed just prior to the crash impact. Meanwhile, he parleyed with
nomads who had come to loot the dead. The Englishmen reached a Syrian
military outpost, which sent a small plane to investigate. Roddenberry
returned with the small plane to the outpost, where he broadcast a
message that was relayed to Pan Am, which sent a stretcher plane to
the rescue. Roddenberry later received a Civil Aeronautics
commendation for his efforts during and after the crash."

His memorial service featured a missing man formation of Long EZ's (I
put it together)

Also, the man who designed the "Enterprise" itself, Matt Jefferies,
was a pilot based at Santa Paula for many years. The resturant there
is still decorated with paintings of aircraft that Jefferies did.