Origin of Deke Slayton's post-mortem flight UL

[Johnny_L.A]

What is the origin of the alledged flight of Deke Slayton’s Formula 1 racing aircraft six hours after he died?

World famous astronaut Deke Slayton, crew member of the 1975 US-USSR Apollo-Soyuz mission, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, and an avid Formula 1 racing pilot died at his home in Texas at 3:22 A.M. on June 13,1993.

Later that same day at 7:58 A.M. local time, at the John Wayne Airport in California a Formula One racing plane with large FAA required numbers on the fuselage (N21X), took off from the airport and performed various flight maneuvers. With a high speed racing propeller the extremely noisy racer 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.

On July 20th Bobbie Slayton (Deke’s wife) received a letter from the FAA to Donald K. Slayton, notifying him of the violation.

Bobbie contacted the FAA, pointing out that Deke had been dead for 6 hours before the incident. She further added that N21X had been donated to a racing museum in Sparks Nevada several months earlier, and that before being displayed, the racer’s engine was removed.

Bobbie remarked that it probably took Deke 6 hours to find Gus Grissom to prop the plane for him.

[Broomstick]

Oh, MY!

Let me guess - Pancho Barnes had beer and steaks on the grill for the boys when they got back from their flight, right?

[samclem]

I think This site probably give a good overview of how the urban legend came about.

The late, great, world-famed astronaut Deke Slayton co-authored the book MOON SHOT, adapted as a two-part special for TBS July 11th & 13th, 1994. Slayton, during his life, was a crew member of the 1975 US-USSR Apollo-Soyuz mission, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, former test pilot with the USAF, and an avid racing plane pilot. He died at his home in Texas at 3:22 AM., June 13, 1993. With him was his wife Bobbie, and their daughter, Stacey.

But, as shown at the end of the second part of the TBS adaptation (available on home video), that was not the last time Deke Slayton made his mark on this planet. Slayton’s final flight took place hours after he died.

If you read the entire article, it pretty well falls into the kook territory.

Another site I found shows pictures of the plane(scroll down) and somewhat debunks the legend in that the plane only has a large “21” on it’s fuselage, and a “tiny” N21X" on the stabilizer, which would not have been very visible to most observers.

[Johnny_L.A]

@samclem

I think This site probably give a good overview of how the urban legend came about.

Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I heard the story shortly after Slayton died – i.e., before I ever saw Moon Shot which was many years later. ISTR hearing it on the news (probably KNBC-4LA). So maybe there’s my answer: Someone told the story to the local news and that’s where I (and many others) heard it.

Looking at the photos on your link, the 21 is definitely not the N-number. (Although the N-number is 21X, it’s fery small and on the vertical stab.) I’ve never flown out of SNA as a pilot, but as a passenger it seemed to me that there are many interesting aircraft types there. Speculation: A pilot, possibly a transient, just happened to take off in an aircraft similar to Slayton’s a few hours after Slayton’s death. Either he didn’t know he violated the sound ordinance, or he didn’t want to get dinged for it and kept mum. Or: Someone just made it up and broke it to the news. I’m guessing there’s no way to find out which happened?

[Johnny_L.A]

Missed the edit window. I found this site, which purports to show an image of the actual violation sent by the airport director to Slayton. Assuming it’s not a fake, it appears that someone violated the curfew and the aircraft was mistakenly identified as Slayton’s. If that’s what happened, interesting timing.

[ElvisL1ves]

The plane went off to join Saint-Exupery’s P-38 and “the Avro Arrow that got away”.

[Johnny_L.A]

@ElvisL1ves

The plane went off to join Saint-Exupery’s P-38…

They found it.

[Morgenstern]

Duke almost missed his opportunity to break the 8AM curfew. He made it by 3 minutes (7:57AM). Good form Duke.