On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the five sons of Richard F. "Bud" Schwarz are pleased to honor their father with a place on the National Aviation and Space Exploration Wall of Honor.
From the time that he was a young boy, our Dad has been fascinated with all aspects of flight. Following is a sample of his activities and accomplishments:
? At age 7, little Bud saw a biplane make a forced landing in a nearby wheat field, then saw the pilot fix the plane and take off. Thus began a life-long passion for flight.
? As a 13-year old boy, Bud was an 'airport bum' at the Alhambra airport.
? At age 15, he entered a nationwide Model Aircraft Project which was to deliver 500,000 airplanes to the U.S. Navy to be used for wartime training. Bud won the California competition and was selected to build a model plane representing California in a national exhibit on display in Washington D.C. His model was subsequently placed in a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
? During WWII, he worked at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, CA where he assembled instrument panels for the B-l 7 Flying Fortress.
? In 1952, he acquired his private pilot's license and bought a single-engine Luscombe, which he flew until 1953 when he got married to his sweetheart, Phylis Eileen Bird.
? From 1956 to 1969, he worked at North American Aviation's Rocketdyne division in Santa Susana, California, where he was a test engineer. During his tenure at Rocketdyne, he tested Mercury and Apollo rocket engines.
? Before, during and after the Rocketdyne years, he went to night school and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. This achievement was a great example to his sons of determination and the importance of education.
? Family vacations and leisure time usually included side trips to obscure airports.
? He never lost his love for model planes. Through the 60's and 70's he enjoyed building and flying balsa gliders of unique design and excellent performance. In the 80's he built scale models of various experimental airplanes that he had on the drawing board. More recently, he's been building and flying several radio-controlled model aircraft, most of which have accumulated very little time prior to "auguring in".
? In his spare time, he wrote the book "Elements of Airplane Design for the Homebuilder" which provided technical guidance for builders of homebuilt airplanes. Several thousand copies have been sold over the years.
? After retiring at age 65 as a test engineer from Raypak, Inc., Bud went back to school where he earned his Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic license.
? In 1993, he decided that he wanted to restore a damaged 1946 Ercoupe 415c, which had crashed in 1951. Replacement parts were hard to come by, so he found another out-of-service Ercoupe in North Carolina. He flew to North Carolina, bought the plane and brought it back to California for parts. During the next 5 years, he completely restored the first Ercoupe, renewed his pilot's license and achieved his dream of regular recreational flying with other retired buddies.
? While enjoying the Ercoupe, Bud began building an airplane of his own design, which he calls the S-2. As of his 80th birthday, this latest project is an active work in progress.
Besides having a life-long love for all things air and space, he has been a great Husband, Father and Grandfather. We proudly honor our Dad on this special occasion.
Eric, Walt, Gary, Paul and Dan Schwarz