Air show is final solo act for pilot, biplane
Craft will be included in museum exhibition that opens in 2021
The Oracle Challenger III biplane, with its specialized wings, propeller and tail, lives up to its name.
It took pilot Sean Tucker two years and more than 1,000 flights to master the Challenger’s controls — after Tucker already had clocked decades of professional aerobatic flying.
“Now the wings become my arms,” Tucker said.
The days of Tucker and the Challenger front-flipping, backflipping and tumbling through the skies, however, are coming to an end.
Tucker will perform his last solo act in the Challenger this weekend at the Wings Over Houston Airshow at Ellington Field. Tucker, based in California, will go on to lead a four-plane aerobatic team, while the bright red Challenger will permanently land at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in a new general aviation exhibit opening in 2021.
“I only get one more year to fly this girl, and I get to deliver it to the Smithsonian,” Tucker said.
The museum’s recognition marks the latest achievement in the pilot’s storied 42-year career.
He performed in his first air show in 1976, was named one of the 25 Living Legends of Flight by the National Air and Space Museum in 2003 and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2008, among numerous other awards.
During his last trip to Houston in 2016, Tucker received the Lloyd P. Nolen Lifetime Achievement in Aviation Award, one of the highest honors in the industry.
“Sean is an icon,” said Don Johnson, chairman of the board of Houston’s air show.
The Challenger, designed per his specifications, has taken Tuck-
er into the clouds for the last eight years, three times a day weather permitting. He has invested near $600,000 into the biplane’s construction and maintenance. It is one of the only aerobatic flying machines with eight ailerons, or hinged surfaces that control lateral balance. This allows Tucker to make precise movements including his signature triple ribbon cut, in which he flies the plane 20 feet off the ground at 210 mph to cut three sets of ribbons attached to poles.
“It’s an evolution of what I’ve always wanted in an airplane over the last 40 years,” he said.
To have his plane in the forthcoming “Thomas W. Haas We All Fly” Smithsonian exhibit means Tucker will be able to do what he loves almost more than flying: inspiring the next generation of pilots. Getting into the aviation industry is becoming more expensive each year, Tucker said. And sources of inspiration are becoming harder to come by.
“Unfortunately, the world of general aviation has contracted, especially after 9/11,” he said.
Gone are the days when kids could sit on the grass near an airport and watch the planes take off like Tucker used to do with his siblings. Airports now are tightly restricted areas, leaving air shows as one of the remaining options for those eager to see the art of flight up close.
Tucker’s interest in getting younger generations airborne is not just a personal goal.
Earlier this year, Boeing projected there would be a demand for more than 790,000 pilots over the next 20 years, or double the current workforce.
Organizations like the Commemorative Air Force, which puts on the Houston air show, have tried to address this demand by offering scholarships to college students pursuing a career in aviation, and ensuring children have access to pilots like Tucker at big events, said Johnson of the Houston air show’s board.
“Air-show flying is just such a powerful emotion for the performer,” Tucker said. “You’re sharing your passion of the third dimension with people on the ground.”