They Shot for the Moon
Did Deke Slayton make
one last flight?
Judge for yourself.
Deke Slayton, a
crew member on the 1975 USA-USSR Apollo-Soyuz mission and one of the original
Mercury Seven astronauts, died at his home in Texas at 3:22 a.m. on June
13,1993. With him were his wife Bobbie and their daughter, Stacey.
Slayton had been an avid Formula One racing pilot and the owner of an F-1
airplane, the "Stinger" tail number N21X.
It was reported that
at 7:58 a.m., PDT, a Formula One racing plane with large numbers on the
fuselage (N21X), as required by the FAA, took off from the John Wayne-Orange
County Airport in southern California. The extremely noisy airplane
was seen and heard by many people who clearly identified the aircraft type
and wrote down the N21X registration. The FAA determined that the noise
level mandated by law had been exceeded.
Bobbie Slayton received
a letter from the FAA, dated June 28, 1993, to Donald K. Slayton, notifying
him of the violation. She contacted the FAA, pointing out that (1.)
Deke had been dead for 6 hours before the incident and (2.) The airplane
had been donated to a racing museum in Sparks Nevada in March 1993, and
that before being put on display, the engine had been removed.
Noting that the airplane
had no on-board starter, (common in racing planes to save weight) Bobbie
remarked that it probably took Deke 6 hours to find his friend, Gus Grissom
to prop the plane for him. Grissom was one of the three astronauts who
died in the Apollo 1 fire on Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral, January 27, 1967.
This information
has been seen in various forms on the World Wide Web and published in paranormal
magazines and other media. When I found out that Slayton's racer,
"Stinger" was on display at the Museum of Flying in Chino, California,
I was anxious to see it for myself. Not only does it appear that
the engine has been re-mounted, but I find the description of the airplane,
as reported by witnesses that day, troubling. As can be plainly seen
in the photos, the number "21" appears in large numbers on each side of
the fuselage. The entire "N" number, N21X appears on the vertical stabilizer
painted in much smaller letters that would be difficult, if not impossible
to read from the ground while the airplane is in flight. Of course,
I am making the assumption here that the airplane has not been re-painted,
but I have not seen any report that it was.
|
The cockpit
gives an idea of the size of the "Stinger".
|
| Deke Slayton's Formula
One racing Plane,"Stinger" is currently on display at the Planes
of Fame Air Museum located at the Chino Airport near Los Angeles, California.
The airplane was designed and built By Art Williams and owned by John Paul
Jones from 1971 to 1979 when it was aquired by Slayton. Its top qualifying
speed was 234MPH and the craft competed at Reno, Miramar N.A.S., Pt. Magu,
Mexacali and Wenatchee air races. Notice how small the "N" number
is on the vertical stabilizer.
It is in good company
being surrounded by the likes of "Firecracker", which Tony Levier piloted
to a 2nd place in the 1939 Thompson Trophy Race behind Roscoe Turner at
a speed of 272.588MPH. The blue Number 18 was piloted by Joe Jacobson
at 218.28 MPH and appeared as a co-star to Fay Ray in the movie "Tailspin"
depicting women racing pilots. The white airplane is the Howard DGA
5 "Ike" flown to a speed of 207.064 MPH by Harold Newman in the 1934 Thompson
Trophy Race. |
| A close-up of the
"N" number gives you an idea of how small it is. |
