On Fri, 06 Jan 2006 03:52:44 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

: Gene Roddenbery was a heck of a good pilot.
:
:FASCINATING (as Spock would say) story, Richard. Thanks for sharing it.
:
:What was Roddenberry called again? That "Great Bird in the Sky" -- or
:something to that effect?

The Great Bird of the Galaxy.

I was working at Paramount when he died and made the offer for the
missing man. The Star Trek producers said that would be wonderful,
and asked how much it would cost. I told them that's not the way it
works.

The Condor Squadron - T6's - at Van Nuys volunteered, but I thought
Long EZs would be more appropriate. I contacted the Beech dealer at
Van Nuys to see if they'd fly the Starship they had there as the #2.
He refered me to a sales VP at Beech. I explained the situation for
him and asked if they'd join us, since the memorial was about a 3
minute flight away from their base.

He said "Why would we ever do that?"

I tried to explain that a) GB had come up with the name "Starship" and
had graciously allowed Beech to use it and b) there'd be about 20
television crews covering it but he just wouldn't hear of it.

The later Star Trek ships were called "Defiant" and "Voyager." Not an
accident.