Air Fair takes off with the arrival of a classic WWII plane.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

JUNCTION CITY - He got a ticket.

"He just drew my attention," quipped Sgt. Scott Miller of the Oregon State Police. "He was doing 90 (mph) in a 55."

Miller, however, decided he would show the old pilot some compassion and cited him instead for driving down Highway 99 with no "slow moving" sign and for not having a permit. After all, he was driving a torpedo bomber, and it was more than 8 feet wide.

Yes, of course it was all a joke and all part of the fun as hundreds came out to see 74-year-old R.D. "Crash" Williams from Mercer Island, Wash., drop his World War II-era Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bomber out of the wild blue yonder and onto the highway, just south of here, before taxiing about 2 1/2 miles to the Guaranty car dealership.

The classic warplane will be on display at the dealership until 7 tonight to promote the Oregon Air and Space Museum's Air Fair 2003 on Saturday and Sunday at the Eugene Airport.

It was the second time the museum has orchestrated a plane landing on the highway to promote the air fair. The last time was in 1997.

"Whoaaaaaa!" said Joey Prentice, 14, of Portland, as Williams' plane cruised right over his head and touched down by the Junction City Pond in front of the spectators who lined the highway.

State police and Lane County sheriff's deputies had a tough time keeping curious onlookers back as they and state Transportation Department officials briefly closed the highway to traffic between Milliron Road and Highway 36.

Adults, accompanied by children and pets, set up lawn chairs as police and museum employees screamed at them to get back just before Williams came in for his landing shortly after 10 a.m.

Williams, who flew the plane into Eugene from Seattle on Wednesday night, said he wasn't at all nervous during his first highway landing.

"Piece of cake," he said. "That was the longest runway I've ever seen in my life."

He got his nickname in 1957 when the Piper Tri-Pacer he was flying crashed in a New Mexico mountain range. His wife and another couple were on board, and all four walked away from the accident unhurt, he said. The man who flew for the Air National Guard every weekend for 28 years still keeps a small, worn black-and-white photo of the crumpled Piper in his wallet. And his wife is still afraid to fly. So was the other woman who was aboard the plane when it crashed. It was her first plane ride.

"I ran into her about 10 years ago," Williams remembered, "and she said, `Thanks a lot. Now I have to take a pill to fly.' '

In 1997 museum officials decided to find a pilot to land a plane on the highway and then park it at Guaranty, the most visible business around, as a promotion for their air fair, said Norm Parmenter, one of the museum's directors. They got retired Navy Capt. Ray Chalker of Olympia, who landed his World War II Wildcat fighter plane on the highway in the same spot as Williams did Thursday.

It took six years to do it all over again.

Williams bought his plane three years ago from a museum in Minot, North Dakota, but he wouldn't say what he paid for the plane he calls "The Blue Lady" and his wife calls his "adult retirement toy."

"That's between me and God, and God isn't talking either," he said. "Besides, my wife would kill me if she knew."

The plane was part of the Canadian Navy during World War II and saw no combat, Williams said.

More than 9,800 TBM Avengers were produced beginning in 1942. The planes were used extensively in the Pacific to attack enemy ships and to support ground forces. Avengers, so named because they were "avenging" what happened at Pearl Harbor, sunk both the Musashi and the Yamato of the Japanese fleet, then the two largest battleships in the world.

It is also the plane former president George H.W. Bush was flying in 1944 when he was shot down. His two crewmen were killed, but Bush parachuted to safety.

All 7-year-old Nick Williams knew Thursday was that this was one "cool" plane. Asked why he thought it was so cool, Nick looked at his questioner as if the answer were obvious and said: "Because it's all the way from World War II."

Oregon Air and Space Museum Air Fair 2003

What: The museum's first air fair since 1997. Although the museum sponsored an "air show" three years ago, this will be the first air fair in six years, the longest stretch since the fairs began in the late 1980s. Classic and historic airplanes will be on display, including World War II-era fighter planes and Cottage Grove resident Jim Wright's Hughes H-1 Racer, a replica of Howard Hughes' first plane.

Where: Eugene Airport

When: Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $5 with children under 10 free. For more information call 461-1101.

CAPTION(S):

Nicholas Williams, 7, peers into the aft compartment of the torpedo bomber in Junction City Thursday. He thought the World War II-era plane was `cool.' Paul Carter / The Register-Guard After takeoff from the Eugene Airport, pilot R.D. Williams scans the landscape as he prepares to make his landing on Highway 99. `That's between me and God, and God isn't talking either. Besides, my wife would kill me if she knew.'- R.D. "CRASH" WILLIAMS, ON THE COST OF HIS WWII-ERA PLANE