The Real TOPGUN | Robert "Hoot" Gibson | The Man Who Flew Over 160 Airplanes | EPISODE 1

A wonderful interview with Hoot Gibson. He is a Topgun pilot, Astronaut, air racer, instructor, engineer, and much more. This is the first part of a series of interviews with him, followed by a wonderful, intimate documentary about Bob Hoover, a true aviation legend.
Hoot has flown more than 160 airplanes. Robert Lee "Hoot" Gibson is a former American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer. He was also an astronaut, he broke records and flew over 160 airplanes!. He is active as a professional pilot, racing regularly at the annual Reno Air Races. He was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2003 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2013, and has received several military decorations throughout his career.
HOOT GIBSON SERIES SEASON 1:
EPISODE 01: • The Real TOPGUN | Robe...
EPISODE 01 EXTENDED: • The Man Who Can Fly An...
EPISODE 02: • Seconds From Disaster ...
EPISODE 03: • Seconds From Disaster ...
EPISODE 04: • Hoot Gibson's Hangar #...
EPISODE 05: • The Man Who Can Fly An...
EPISODE 06: • The Man Who Can Fly An...
EPISODE 07: • The Man Who Can Fly An...
EPISODE 08: • TRAINING AND COMBAT. H...
EPISODE 09: • Shooting MiGs In Vietn...
EPISODE 10: • From The F-14 Tomcat T...
EPISODE 11: • The Space Shuttle Chal...
EPISODE 12: • Investigating Accident...
EPISODE 13: • Fatal Accident | Hoot ...
EPISODE 14: COMING SOON
FULL PLAYLIST: • The Man Who Can Fly An...
Gibson entered active duty with the U.S. Navy in 1969. He was commissioned through the Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS), and proceeded to flight training. He received basic and primary flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola and Naval Air Station Saufley Field, Florida, and Naval Air Station Meridian, Mississippi. He completed advanced flight training at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas and was assigned to Fighter Squadron 121 (VF-121) at Naval Air Station Miramar, California for replacement training in the F-4 Phantom II.
While assigned to Fighter Squadron 111 (VF-111) and Fighter Squadron 1 (VF-1) from April 1972 to September 1975, he saw duty aboard the aircraft carriers USS Coral Sea and USS Enterprise, flying combat missions in Southeast Asia in the F-4 with VF-111 and making the initial operational carrier deployment of the F-14 Tomcat with VF-1. He is a graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, also known as "TOPGUN."
Gibson became an astronaut in August 1979. Gibson flew five Space Shuttle missions: STS-41-B in 1984, STS-61-C in 1986, STS-27 in 1988, STS-47 in 1992, and STS-71 in 1995.
Gibson left NASA in November 1996 and became a pilot for Southwest Airlines. In 2006, as reported by NASA Watch, Gibson was forced to retire as mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration for commercial airline pilots. Gibson has publicly spoken out against federal regulations which require airline pilots to retire at age 60. In December 2006, he joined the Benson Space Company as a chief operating officer and chief test pilot.
Awarded the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) "Louis Blériot Medal" (1991 and 2004)
Awarded the "Yuri A. Gagarin Gold Medal" by the FAI
Awarded the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) "Freedom of Flight" Award (1989)
U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame (2003)
National Aviation Hall of Fame (2012)
Established FAI world records for "Altitude in Horizontal Flight," Airplane Class C1A in 1991, "Time to Climb to 9000 Meters" in 1994, and "Speed over a closed course" in 2004.
Awarded the William F. Shea Award for contribution to aviation from the University of Nebraska-Omaha Aviation Institute (2012)
U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame (2012)
Military awards include the:
Defense Superior Service Medal
Distinguished Flying Cross
Air Medal (3)
Navy Commendation Medal with Combat "V"
Navy Unit Commendation
Meritorious Unit Commendation
National Defense Service Medal (2)
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Humanitarian Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Hoot Gibson’s Hangar, aviation’s premier podcast, hosted by America’s premier aviator, Hoot Gibson, “The Man That Can Fly Anything."
Don’t miss a single episode. Video podcasts air exclusively on Air2AirTV and aviation’s premier KZbin channel - Dronescapes, producing aircraft documentaries, exclusive stories, and interviews from veterans, pilots, and aces, in their own words. WWII missions, Vietnam's stories, and much more!
Hoot Gibson’s Hangar audio podcast can be downloaded from all top podcast directories: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn Alexa, Overcast, PocketCast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, and many more.
You can also download the audio podcast on Air2AirTV by clicking on the RESOURCE tab below each episode.
#aircraft #hootgibson #aviation

[@Dronescapes]

Click the link to watch more aircraft, heroes and their stories, missions: kzbin.info/aero/PLBI4gRjPKfnNx3Mp4xzYTtVARDWEr6nrT

[@GuyFromSC]

Man I tell you what, I can listen to Hoot talk nonstop. Even as bedtime stories, I’ll just let these vids ride as I fall asleep. Is it just me or does his voice and expertise, experience, and range just fascinate you? 🙏🏼

[@thomasharroun8068]

In 1998, I watched Gibson win the EAA AirVenture Cup Race in a Hawker Sea Fury

[@ronbyers9912]

I want to know what the Southwest pilot thought the first time Hoot Gibson was assigned to be his co-pilot. That had to be a hoot.

[@lawrencestrabala6146]

The Bob Hoover story is awesome. Thanks for sharing this Hoot.

[@andymustangflyer1528]

My outmost respect to Commander Gibson, one of my most inspiring heroes. Many thanks to DroneScapes for this interview.

[@Dronescapes]

Our pleasure!

[@bnaivar]

I met Hoot at a Space Camp Alumni session in Huntsville AL. He is a very personable man and humble to a fault.

[@Dronescapes]

Thank you for sharing Bill. I spent a few weekends in an airfield in Texas a decade ago. Amazing person. I still have a cool gift he gave me from a Shuttle mission.

[@bernardc2553]

Still have goosebumps after watching,from my early days of RAR Hoot was accompanied with some of the BEST Gladiators mastering their Stallions AND as a young MEL Pilot Mr RA Bob Hoover was my Mentor always learning to be better but NEVER quit flying the Airplane ,Reguardless.

[@Dronescapes]

👍🙏

[@bernardc2553]

@@Dronescapes We were truly Blessed Having the opportunity to meet Some of our "Best of the Best" My older Children remember (I have a Picture of My Oldest In the Cockpit of Voodoo) We strive, with ppl like yourself, to keep there Memories alive ,How they helped with the Freedom we a blessed with their sacrifice and in Passing their history to my Grandkids & their Generations They will NEVER be forgotten all Brothers & Sisters in the Best Country in the World ! Thank you for all you do and a special ,Thank you to ALL are Veterans. ( My Oldest VA Office is wall to wall Aircraft Art 95+% Warbirds.

[@frankdodgee]

An endorsement from Jimmy Doolittle was all I needed to hear. ❤🇺🇸👍wow! Heroes indeed.

[@ciesinsk]

Awesome interview. I love the voice of this man, too.

[@Dronescapes]

Class act

[@lw216316]

I once saw Hoot fly an Air Force F-16 Thunderbird. You read that right. Navy guy Hoot flying the F-16 airshow Thunderbird. It was at our RC airplane field near Nashville, Tn. He also flew the F4. I ask him why he enjoyed RC flying. He said he did not get to fly the full size F4 anymore so he enjoyed the small scale version. Hoot is a nice guy and friendly to us "average Joes." I saw Bob Hoover fly at airshows in the Nashville area. I did not know his history until I watched this video. All I knew was he was an excellent pilot. My father was born the same year as Bob Hoover and also did flying in the Nashville area. My first flight was with my father in Nashville.

[@S_M_360]

Fantastic interview!

[@Dronescapes]

Thank you 🙏

[@davidelam631]

Fly Navy! Hoot and John Young are the 2 greatest astronauts to ever live.

[@user-in2uw6bw8s]

Absolutely agree👍👨‍✈️👨‍✈️…. They are super human!!!

[@louwvandermerwe178]

Love your room!

[@kap851]

My dad and I met Mr. Gibson at the cedar city UT airport. He flew in on a Mig so cool to meet him.

[@Dronescapes]

Wow.

[@lawrencestrabala6146]

“Who’s the best pilot you ever saw?”

[@terriecotham1567]

When I first heard the name of Hoot Gibson I thank of the pilot of the aircraft that fail from the sky and of the 60 Minutes story and new groundbreaking reporting they did on the story using a flight-slimuator and passangers along with the flight crew of the aircraft. Found him to verry nice as a tech who had done a avionics installation of a new ADF system and had took his aircraft out and did a full power run up and the ADF was as solid as a 5-pound rock in a 2 MPH wind from the low range to the high range, But after setting for two weeks, he paid his bill and pick up the aircraft and after a short flight came back with a ADF system not working and the needle would just wounder around as if it was lost. After some troubleshooting, we found it was a bad connector from the factory, He was not upset and told me the story of that flight and how he was fired at once, He came back in two weeks and everything work as it should and a few mounts latter he came in with two tail draggers if i remembrance correctly for avionics upgrades and gave me a ground check out for running up the engines and checking out the avionics on the ground , He was also the Grate Grandson of the actor Hoot Gibson if i remember correctly. You have to love stores like this and the people who live them Thanks to all who put this story together as Hoot Gibson and Bob Hover and just a few of the many store's worth listing to and learning from in life I love lots of the TV shows but thank more stores like this on TV would help make the world a better place for those to come. Thanks for posting

[@oceanhome2023]

This is the guy I want teaching me how to Fly !!!

[@kennedysingh3916]

Watched from Jamaica.

[@Dronescapes]

👍🙏

[@Afauci]

I was in nam!

[@groomlake51]

My uncle Skip Holm raced against Hoot in Reno🤘🏽🚀

[@Dronescapes]

Who won?

[@bruceday6799]

Hoot Gibson, yes, yes yes! But you top that with R.A. ''BOB'' HOOVER!!!

[@Dronescapes]

👍🇺🇸❤

[@roblamastus]

Did someone mean to edit this into two videos?

[@Dronescapes]

This will be several videos, hence the title: part 1

[@Dronescapes]

We also wanted to give visibility to another amazing pilot: Bob Hoover

[@hunterhalo2]

Says Bob Hoover on the run escaping in German open countryside... shows southern Swiss Alps lol

[@SamIIs]

👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋...!!!

[@Dronescapes]

🙏🙏👍👍♥️♥️

[@scotcoon1186]

Is it just me, or does Hoot sound a lot like Ron Swanson?

[@gnomeresearch1666]

Other way around.

[@bigdaddie40]

Hoot, do you get to log the time in space as "flight time?"

[@Dronescapes]

That's a good question. It will be passed on for future podcasts

[@damien5748]

The fact you have to fly to get into space in the first place would be considered flight time...also when coming back you have to fly and land the shuttle like an aircraft would also be considered flight time.....maybe🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@PewPewBoomer1.]

Fun fact hoot is my soon to be Father In-Law the stories I’ve heard I’ll never forget he truly is amazing and he has taught me so much.

[@davidtx8777]

Hoot's the best, just ask him.

[@robtudor3785]

160 airplanes, is that all. Try 487 from biplanes to jets including rocket planes. How many aircraft carriers take offs and landings? Try 2,407 and 2,271 respectively! That’s a pilot. Raise 🥃 to Eric Winkle Brown. Incidentally US tried to break his record. A US pilot tried to break his record, committed suicide after about 1400! Winkle Brown, flying genius.

[@Dronescapes]

It is hard, or next to impossible to bear Brown, yet Hoot Gibson also flew to space

[@robtudor3785]

@@Dronescapes Hoot is amazing. Just Winkle is special. His whole life is amazing.

[@Dronescapes]

@@robtudor3785 We have a series of never seen before interviews with Winkle Brown coming on the channel very soon!

[@n9amiwavelengthradio]

Not

[@Dronescapes]

Not what?