George Applebay will be remembered for more than being a pioneer in glider design and a fixture in the soaring community. Applebay, who died in April at 89, also was a World War II flight engineer and a test pilot for various aviation companies. His career spanned decades as he worked until late 2014 at his business, Applebay Aircraft at Moriarty Airport in New Mexico. Moriarty is home of the museum he founded, the U.S. Southwest Soaring Museum. The museum remembered him in its last quarterly newsletter(PDF), noting that among the numerous awards he was given over the years, the New Mexico State Legislature in February named one of his designs, the Zuni, the State Glider. Applebay first designed the Zuni in 1975 and it evolved into the Zuni II in 1980. In 1983, he donated a Zuni II to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.
In a 2009 EAA “Timeless Voices” video, Applebay shared stories of his lifelong fascination with flight, starting with meeting a barnstormer at age 7. In World War II he served as an Army Air Force mechanic and flight engineer and worked on B-17s and B-29s. He earned pilot certificates under the GI bill and went on to work for Boeing and then Cessna’s experimental department in Wichita, spin testing the T37. He instructed in gliders starting in the 1950s and, while continuing his work in aircraft innovation, began designing and building his own gliders. He eventually settled in New Mexico to pursue sailplane design and flight.
I worked for this kind gentleman some 40 years ago and help build a zia and a zuniII when the shop was in Tierras canyon, just outside of Albuquerque. Mr. Applebay took me to Edwards AFB in 1982 to watch the first X31 fly and I met a guy that has been mentioned in a few movies, Mr. Yeager and another test pilot, Neil Armstrong. I was unfortunately let go from one of my first real job that I loved at the age of 16 due to finances and yet still came back when I could to help out volunteering my time to help finish the planes. Mr. Applebay took me flying at Moriarty airfield, it really was not even a airport at the time. Moriarty is a unique area for gliders, one the thermals are strong there in the summer and fall (spring is tough due to winds), second is that if you miss the airfield, there is a ton of flat land to land and a few great roads. I had not checked up on my friend and boss for 30+ years, I ended up as a Paramedic/Firefighter Chief and only started to think about soaring recently. I figured that George probably passed and when I looked everything up I did not know of his accomplishments after we lost track of each other. So to my boss and friend, happy sailing in the skies.
Correction, not the x31, x17 at Edwards later named the F117. Sorry got my planes mixed, I was also in the military as a recovery and combat medic and that I also have to thank George for, x31 flew when I was on duty for recovery that was not needed.