Austin’s Own Experimental Aircraft Builder and Writer – Antoni “Tony” Bingeles died on March 29 in Austin after a long illness, he was 80. After serving 23 years in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Tony went to
work for the Texas Aeronautics Commission, now the Texas Department of Transportation Aviation Division and retired after 18 years of service.
He wrote and published four books on building Experimental Aircraft which are well-read worldwide. In 1987, copyright and proceeds from the books were donated to the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Aviation was Tony’s true passion. In 1963, he was the founder of the EAA Chapter 187 in Austin. He organized the First Southwest Regional Fly-In in Georgetown, Texas in 1965, which is now the SWRFI of Abilene, Texas. Tony was also the author for 25 years of a monthly technical column for the Sport Aviation Magazine. Additionally, he was inducted into the Experimental Aircraft Association Homebuilders Hall of Fame in 1995.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Morine Shockley- Bingeles.
Fly high, Tony!
Central Texas Aviation Pioneer – Robert “Bobby” L. Ragsdale died on March 15, in Austin, he was 85. Inspired by the barnstormers in the 20’s, he knew that he wanted to fly! He built his first airplane when he was 12 years old, which is still on his ranch in Big Spring. A 1938 graduate of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, Ragsdale received a degree in aeronautical engineering. One day while hitchhiking to town, he accepted a ride with Pearle Baired who became his first legal passenger and finally his wife on July 1940. During WWII he trained thousands of flight instructors and pilots to fly for the Army Air Corps, as well as pilots for the University of Texas and St. Edwards University. The rest is history. He then went on to build a major aircraft business, Ragsdale Aviation at Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, in Austin. Ragsdale in his later years devoted himself to philanthropy, quiet about his good deeds and generous with his gifts.
His wife preceded him in death in 1993.
Texan Rose to President of Aviation Company – E. Fred Buehring, who began his 53-year career in the aviation industry as a tool planner and rose to head E-Systems, died in April; he was 85. Buehring was born in McGregor, Texas and was a longtime civic leader in Greenville in North Texas. He retired as president of the avionics company in 1974, but remained on the board of directors until its merger with Raytheon in 1995. Well- known in the Grand Prairie area and at Love Field during WWII, he led the switch toward the emerging electronics industry, by specializing in airborne systems electronics for large military aircraft.
The Grand Dame of Aviation – The legendary San Francisco Bay area certified flight instructor (CFI) Amelia Reid died on March 3, of complications from a stroke she suffered in January. She was 76. Synonymous with aviation in California, Reid held an airline transport pilot’s (ATP) license, ratings for single-engine land and sea, including multi-engine land and glider. Additionally, she was famous for aerobatics and her low-altitude butterfly maneuver in a Cessna 150 Aerobat. Her former students include airshow star Sean D. Tucker and author/comedian/flight instructor Rod Machado.
D.B. COOPER’S PILOT – William “Scotty” Scott, best known for being the pilot on the infamous D.B. Cooper flight, died at his home on March 11. For 30 years Scott said very little about his experience with the famed hijacker, D.B. Cooper, who took over a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 727 on Thanksgiving Eve 1971. Cooper bailed out of the 727 somewhere near the Columbia River in Oregon, after receiving $200,000 in ransom money and four parachutes. Cooper was never found, but part of the ransom money was recovered on the ground many years later.