FIVE PILOTS TO BE ENSHRINED IN AEROSPACE WALK OF HONOR.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- The pilot of the first space shuttle mission, an F-16 test pilot, a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, a research plane pilot and one who was the first to shoot down a Japanese airplane at Pearl Harbor will be inducted into Lancaster's Aerospace Walk of Honor.

The honorees are retired Capt. Robert "Crip" Crippen, retired Col. Robert Ettinger, Lewis Nelson, Charles Tucker and George Schwartz "Wheaties" Welch.

"In a profession where extraordinary achievement is the norm, the honorees selected have soared above the rest," Lancaster Mayor Henry Hearns said.

Crippen, Ettinger, Nelson and Tucker will be inducted into the Walk of Honor during a ceremony on Sept. 15. Welch, who died in a 1954 plane crash, will be represented at the ceremony.

The Walk of Honor, in its 18th year, celebrates experimental test pilots who have made outstanding contributions to aerospace.

The inductions will bring the number of pilots with monuments along Lancaster Boulevard to 90.

The granite monument honoring the five men will be unveiled at 11 a.m. Sept. 15.

A formal program will follow at 3 p.m. in the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, 750 W. Lancaster Blvd.

The program will feature a keynote speech by John Chatterton, a deep-sea explorer and co-host of the History Channel's "Deep Sea Detectives."

Crippen, 69, piloted the Columbia in April 1981 in the first space shuttle mission. He later commanded the second flight of Challenger. Following the loss of the Challenger, Crippen helped get the grounded shuttle fleet flying again.

Ettinger, 71, was the first pilot to fly the full-scale development F-16 and was the F-16 combined test force director from 1978-1980. He served as vice commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center, and from 1997 to 2006, was the flight test manager for the Global Hawk program.

Nelson, 86, was a Northrop test pilot from 1950 to 1972 and was involved with testing of the F-89, N-156, F-5 and T-38 aircraft. He made the first flight of the YA-9A in May 1972, and is the recipient of two Distinguished Flying Crosses and four air medals.

Tucker, 87, made the first flight of the X-4 at Edwards Air Force Base in December 1948. He also conducted the extremely high-risk spin and stall tests on the YB-49 flying wing jet bomber at Edwards. He is a founder and a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

Welch was the first pilot to shoot down a Japanese plane at Pearl Harbor, the first of four he scored that day. He became the first civilian pilot to exceed Mach 1 in a jet-powered airplane while flying the XF-86.

Welch died in 1954 at Edwards when an F-100A he was in tumbled out of control.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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