TOM LANDRY – Famous Dallas Cowboys coach, Tom Landry served as a B-17 pilot for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He flew 30 missions with the Eighth Air Force in Europe. In 1944, the 20-year-old first lieutenant was forced to land his bomber in Belgium after running out of fuel on a bombing run over Germany. Landry and his crew escaped without injury. After moving to Dallas in 1957, he re-qualified as a private pilot. In 1995, a mechanical problem in his single-engine Cessna forced him to make an emergency landing on a road near a suburban Dallas high school. There were no injuries or damage to the plane. Landry was a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and served on the AOPA Air Safety Foundation’s Board of Visitors for several years. Tom Landry died on February 12, 2000, after a nine-month battle with Leukemia. He was 75.
DR. PATRICIA HILLIARD ROBERTSON, a crew-support astronaut for the International Space Station, died on May 24, 2001, two days after suffering second-and third degree burns in a plane crash. Robertson, 38, was flying as a passenger in an experimental Wittman Tailwind aircraft, owned and piloted by Roy Mack Adams, 46. The preliminary accident report says that the two were performing touch-and-go’s at Wolfe Air Park in Manvel, Texas when “the aircraft pitched to the right” and “the left wing struck the runway.” The aircraft cartwheeled into trees and caught fire.
FLOYD H. “SLATS” RODGERS – The flying career of flamboyant pilot Floyd H. “Slats” Rodgers will be memorialized this autumn with a marker from the Texas Historical Commission. The bootlegger, smuggler, cropduster and stunt pilot is being recognized for his exploits and the innovative contributions he made to the fledgling aviation industry. According to legend, Rodgers built one of the first airplanes in Texas, nine years after the Wright brothers’ historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. He was also known for running contraband machine guns across the border and returning to Texas with a load of liquor. Afraid of carrying ammunition in case he crashed, Rodgers built a trap door in his plane and dumped the ammunition while in slow flight, then landed to collect his pay. He made a living barnstorming until its popularity died out. He modified his plane and became a crop-duster and promoted infrequent charter flights, giving passengers a thrill with unexpected maneuvers. The marker scheduled for dedication on October 5, at 10 a.m., will be displayed inside the McAllen Airport at the entrance to Slats Landing Cantina, the airport bar named for Rodgers. Rodgers was born on March 7, 1889 and died on July 5, 1956.