# Could Bob Hoover really do this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 3, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663 "2025-10-03T23:39:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Timz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Timz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/1 "2025-10-03T23:39:46Z")
Is it a real [pic](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/32580028447/in/album-72177720326282821)? Two feathered props a few feet above the ground, gear up, aimed exactly at the photographer whom he’s not going to hit? ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/2 "2025-10-03T23:49:10Z")
[Pretty sure he could](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgVmdHZ7fgs) Incidentally, a family member of mine worked with Hoover at North American Aviation back in the day. He said all the usual things about him being a gentleman. Interestingly, his buddy Chuck Yeager was apparently a very unpleasant person. Never met him myself, but I know a number of people who have and not one had a nice thing to say about him. Yeager even comes off as a spiteful jerk in his own autobiography. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/3 "2025-10-04T00:56:43Z")
Yes, that was his signature performance. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/4 "2025-10-04T02:58:44Z")
Sure why not? Hoover’s displays were all about energy management. Low with no power is no problem if you’re fast. ---
**Author:** ![3AxisCtrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/ecd19e/32.png) [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/5 "2025-10-04T03:40:08Z")
I saw him do that (at Tullahoma TN). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/6 "2025-10-04T13:02:03Z")
I saw that routine a couple times as a kid at various SoCal airshows. 100% real. And always amazing. But as said above, it’s all energy management and trading potential energy = altitude for kinetic energy = speed & vice versa while slowly losing the sum of both to drag. Start with enough and finish before you run out. Conceptually simple, but difficult to do accurately enough repeatedly enough. Unless you’re Bob Hoover or somebody else of his caliber. There were (are?) similar aerobatic performances done in sailplanes. Same idea. Somehow seeing the ground level high speed passes by a sailplane is less shocking than seeing a heavy twin with feathered props doing the same thing. OTOH, seeing the sailplane doing loops & rolls is more shocking than seeing the heavy twin do them. At least to me. Either way, they’re impressive performances. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/7 "2025-10-04T13:36:46Z")
Damn right he could. I saw him do it at a few EAA events. I flew with him once, back in the 1970’s at the EAA Oshkosh fly-in, in his modified Mustang P-51. The thrill of a lifetime. Loops, spins, barrel rolls, the works. Me and Bob Hoover on that day. I still have his hat that he gave to my dad after my dad’s ride with him. Well, after a night of drinking with my dad after my dad’s ride. Sadly I was underage and did not participate in that. [![](https://i.postimg.cc/RVTdyxhC/Me-and-Bob-Hoover.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/RVTdyxhC/Me-and-Bob-Hoover.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/8 "2025-10-04T14:00:30Z")
You totally win the thread. Thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![Timz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Timz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timz)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/9 "2025-10-04T21:11:47Z")
Wonder whose idea the Shrike performances were. Was Hoover still with North American when it got merged into Rockwell circa 1967? Would a Rockwell exec have known what their new acquisition could do for them? As it turned out Shrike sales did increase sharply after Hoover started his stuff – tho not to huge numbers, or course. Everyone has seen the video of the tea pouring while Hoover does the 1g barrel roll – but he was the one pouring it? He can control the roll well enough with his left hand while he pours with his right? But probably someone else is handling the camera. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/10 "2025-10-04T21:28:15Z")
I got the pleasure to watch Bob (and met him a few times) do his thing in Reno for about 25 years. Not once did he blow a show. Many times he did the Shrike show and also the Yellow P-51 the same day. If you click the next two pictures in that album, those are both what my Old Man flew. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/11 "2025-10-04T22:13:46Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > that album For those who were confused, like me, I think **Gato** meant the album that contains the pic in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/12 "2025-10-04T22:20:24Z")
> [@Timz](#): > > Wonder whose idea the Shrike performances were. Was Hoover still with North American when it got merged into Rockwell circa 1967? Would a Rockwell exec have known what their new acquisition could do for them? As it turned out Shrike sales did increase sharply after Hoover started his stuff – tho not to huge numbers, or course. I have his book on the shelf - will look for that tomorrow if I have time. What I do recall is that when North American decided to send Hoover around demonstrating the F-86 Sabre (which they built), they had to actually go out and BUY one. Per their contract with the military, they couldn’t just take one off the production line. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bob-hoover-really-do-this/1023663/13 "2025-10-05T06:14:02Z")
Yes, sorry. Thanks for clearing that up. F-100 and F-86 if you didn’t see them.