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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

Brig. Gen.
USAF (RET)
Robert L. "Bob" Cardenas,
When, in 1941, the graduates of his flight training class were asked who among them had glider experience, Bob Cardenas was the only one who raised his hand. Result: 2nd Lieutenant Cardenas was sent to Twenty-Nine Palms, CA, where he was tasked with the job of establishing a U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) glider training school. During this assignment, he acquired his initial test piloting experience as he evaluated a series of prototype gliders as well as the operational concepts for their employment. Following a stint as a test pilot for the Aircraft Laboratory at Wright Field, he flew combat in B-24s for the 506th Bombardment Squadron. Shot down over Germany in March 1944, he escaped into Switzerland and then into France prior to D-Day. Returning to Wright Field, he was assigned to the Flight Test Division where he evaluated the Arado 234, Germany's first jet bomber, as well as such highly experimental American prototypes as the XB-42A and the all-jet XB -43. Considered one of die AAF's top multi-engine test pilots, he was assigned as the project pilot for the XB-45 program and designated as chief of the Flight Test Division's Bomber Ops Section in 1946. In the summer of 1947, he was selected to pilot the B-29 which would launch the X-l and designated as officer-in-charge of operations for the Flight Test Division's X-l test team at Muroc. That same year, he was designated as the principal project pilot for the YB-49 program and he subsequently flew the key Air Force evaluations which decided the fate of the giant flying wing bomber. In 1948, he was designated as officer-in-charge of all Flight Test Division projects at Muroc AFB. After a tour at Wright Field and completion of his education at the University of New Mexico in 1955, he was assigned to Okinawa where he served as commander of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Group and then as commander of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing. Following tours as chief of the Aircraft and Guided Missiles Program Division at HQ USAF and as Chief of the Special Operations Division at U.S. Strike Command in Tampa, FL, he returned to Okinawa as commander of the 18th Tactical Fighter Wing just before the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 and, for the next two years, he engaged in F-105 combat operations over Southeast Asia. After assignments as commander of the 835th Air Division, commander of the USAF Special Operations Force at Eglin AFB and vice commander of the 16th Air Force, he served as the U.S. deputy to Live Oak under Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. As chief of the National Strategic Target List Division of the Joint Strategic Targeting Planning Staff at Offutt AFB, NE, during his final active duty assignment from 1971-73, he was involved in the development of the U.S. Nuclear War Plan. After retirement from the USAF, he held a variety of executive positions with industry and he was appointed to major advisory and policy groups by President Reagan and the governor of California. He currently serves as Chairman of the Flight . Test Historical Foundation's board of directors.
Static onboard testing of the rocket engines underway.