103 Years — A Lifetime And An Era In Flight
Ralph Charles, one of the country’s oldest pilots, died Feb. 2 at age 103, in Somerset, Ohio. In his youth he worked with the Wright brothers as a welder. He later ran his own airport, and in the 1930s he flew Stinsons and Ford Tri-Motors for TWA and other airlines. During World War II, Charles flew as a test pilot for Curtiss-Wright. After the war, he gave up flying for many years, but never lost his passion for it. “Sometimes when I would mow, I would imagine my tractor was a plane and I was rising up into the sky,” he told the Associated Press in a 1999 interview. He took up flying again in 1995, and owned an Aeronca Defender. He last flew in the summer of 2001.
Ralph Charles, one of the country's oldest pilots, died Feb. 2 at age 103, in Somerset, Ohio. In his youth he worked with the Wright brothers as a welder. He later ran his own airport, and in the 1930s he flew Stinsons and Ford Tri-Motors for TWA and other airlines. During World War II, Charles flew as a test pilot for Curtiss-Wright. After the war, he gave up flying for many years, but never lost his passion for it. "Sometimes when I would mow, I would imagine my tractor was a plane and I was rising up into the sky," he told the Associated Press in a 1999 interview. He took up flying again in 1995, and owned an Aeronca Defender. He last flew in the summer of 2001.
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