Col. Joseph A. Woida USAF

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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Deborah A. Woida-Cooper

Joseph A. Woida was born in Sault St. Marie, Michigan in 1916. He joined the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in 1941. He trained as a pilot and flew B-18s and B-25s on sub-hunting missions out of the British West Indies, in the Caribbean. He then trained as a command pilot in B-29s and flew high altitude, night bombing missions over Japan from Guam in the Pacific, until the end of the war in the Pacific.

On December 8, 1943 he married Dorothy Blayzor of Pontiac, Michigan.

After the war he was assigned to Clinton County AFB, Wilmington, OH and later Wright Patterson AFB, where he became Chief of Flight Test Operations for the All Weather and Flight Test Division. From 1946 to 1953 he was involved with the approach lighting tests as a pilot and project officer during tests in B-25s, C-47s, and B-17s, instrumentation and traffic control tests of the AN/CPN-18 ground surveillance radar and as a test pilot in P-61s, F-80s, C-54s, automatic approach and landing Tests of instrument landing system (ILS) equipment, E-4 Sperry Automatic Pilot Approach and Landing equipment, and Lear F5 Automatic Pilot and Approach equipment as project pilot and Chief of Operations, operating C-54, B-26, T-33, F-86 and B-50 test aircraft. Also during that same period he was a part of Project SOIAS (Sliding On Ice And Snow), the Aircraft Ski Testing in Kenora, Canada, flying a PIONEER, C-47, and NAVION and the Fifth Phase Testing as a pilot of F-94s and F-89s, which were icing tests consisting of both wing de-icing systems and engine de-icing systems.

He was selected for air attache duty and in June 1953 he was assigned to the embassy in Rome, Italy as the Air Technical Attache to Ambassador Clare Booth Luce, working closely with Dr. Theodore Von Karman. He monitored all Italian aviation. Activities, including the flight tests of the FIAT G-82 and a prototype Caproni Jet primary trainer.

From Sept 1956 to June 1958 he was the Research and Design (R&D) Inspector and Acting Inspector General (IG) at Edwards Air Force Base, California. His duties included the inspection of all flight test operations.

He was then assigned to NATO Headquarters and the Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development (AGARD) in Paris, France, again to work with Dr. Von Karman and Dr. Frank Wattendorf. There he was the Executive of the NATO Flight Test Panel where he coordinated flight test activities for NATO including all meetings, symposiums and exchanges of flight test information and personnel, as well as taking part in flight tests of such NATO aircraft as the FIAT G-91 prototype.

Following an assignment to the AGARD office in the Pentagon from 1960 to 1966. continuing his work with the NATO Test Panel, he culminated his Air Force career in 1968 as Inspector General for USAF Southern Command headquarters at Albrook AFB, Panama Canal Zone, Panama. He conducted continuous review and inspections, visiting the Air Force sections throughout Central and South America, as well as interacting with the militaries of each country.

He became a member of The Society of Experimental Test Pilots in 1961. He passed away May 10, 1987.