Foil: 9 Panel: 4 Column: 4 Line: 85

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Jerry Prather

Gordon Bourland Jr.: Born June 23, 1919; Died Feb 3, 1994

Home: Fort Worth, Texas

Initial Flight: June 20, 1938
First Solo: Aug 4, 1938
Private Certificate: March, 1940
Commercial Certificate: September, 1940
Primary Instructor: Oct 31, 1940
Advanced Instructor: June 20, 941
Entered Army Air Force: June 24, 1941
Army Flight Instructor: July 9, 1941 in Fairchild PT 19

During his Army career he flew 24 different airplanes from the trainers such as the PT-17 and PT-19, to the AT-6. On the tactical side he flew the C-47, C-54, P-38, P-40, P-51, B-25, B-17, B-24 and several others.

After the war he went with American Airlines in Oct of 1945 for a short period quitting to return to Texas and fly charter for American Flyers out of Oklahoma.

In Aug of 1949 he became the Chief Pilot for Central Airlines. He went to Frontier Airlines with the merger and retired as Captain on the Boeing 737 in June 1979.

During retirement Mr. Bourland continued instructing new students and giving tail wheel check outs. During his life he introduced flying to literally hundreds of new aviators in such airplanes as: Fleet, Piper Cub, Aeronca Champ, Luscombe, Arrow Sport, Funk, Travel Air, Bird, Meyers, Fairchild, Stinson, Beechcraft and Waco.

He personally owned a Waco ATO, a Waco Cabin, a Great Lakes, Aeronca Champ and several other classic aircraft. His Waco ATO was used in the filming of the movie Pancho Barnes.

Mr. Bourland quit logging flying time in April of 1985 with a total time over 32,000 hours. His greatest pride was that he never damaged an airplane in his flying career.