Perched on his father's shoulders in 1931, a six year old Ohio farm boy listened intently to Charles Lindberg as he spoke of his barnstorming, mail delivery flights, and solo flight across the Atlantic. Fascinated and inspired, this young boy's dream became a young man's reality. Twelve years later in October of 1943, Ralph E. Nupp enlisted in the U.S. Navy!
In March of1944, Ralph was called to active duty in the V-12 Program and sent to Milligan College, Tennessee. After one year in the V-12 Program, he went to navy Preflight as a V-5 Aviation Cadet at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Following eight months of preflight training, he was sent to Glenview NAS, Illinois to train in N2S Stearman aircraft for the basic flight course. From there, he received further training at Corpus Christi, Texas for SNJ Intermediate Flight Training in instrument flight. Traveling to Pensacola, Florida in early 1946, he received advanced training in SNJ aircraft including carrier landings and tactics. In December 1946, Ralph graduated as an Ensign with Navy wings.
Highlights during his Pensacola training included six landings on a jeep aircraft carrier off the coast of Florida. This was accomplished in an SNJ trainer using a length of clothesline tied to a tailhook that unwrapped from the cockpit in order to drop the hook for landing!
His next duty station was the Banana River NAS, Florida to check out in PBY and PBM-5 flying boats and then onto Bermuda in March, 1947 for Anti-Submarine Squadron duties flying PBMs. Ralph married Jane Ziegler in August of 1948, so he had a great location to honeymoon and chase subs!
Ralph retired from active duty in June 1949, but served in the Naval Reserve flying PBYs. He finished college at Tri-State, Indiana under the G.I. bill with BSEE and BSAE degrees.
In July, 1952, Ralph was hired by Westinghouse Electric Company at Baltimore, Maryland's BWI Airport as a Project Pilot Engineer in Avionic Flight Testing. Navy Test Pilot Training was received at Patuxent NAS in Class 15 for eight months in 1955 flying the B24, S2, F9F, FJ2, SA16, and the F8F.
Recalled to active duty in September 1961, Ralph flew patrol flights out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in P2V Neptune VP661 aircraft to check shipping coming into Cuba. After the missile crisis ended in 1962, Ralph remained in the Naval Reserves at Andrews Air Force Base until he retired as a Commander in 1966.
Ralph returned to Westinghouse flight test for radar evaluation including F4 phantom flights along with B17, B29, F2H, F6,A3D, Bac111, B66, DC3, and Sabreliner flights...to name a few. Thirty-three years of flight testing at Westinghouse as Chief Engineering Test Pilot, Aerospace Division, ended with retirement in 1985.
Ralph's combined flying in the Navy and at Westinghouse amounted to 40 years with approximately 11,000 hours of flight time in over 50 different types of aircraft. He was a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots from 1963-1986.
Good takeoffs, better flying, best landings!