Robert Hoover, Fighter Pilot Who Stole Plane to Escape German Prison in WWII, Dies

PALOS VERDES ESTATES, CA -- Robert A. "Bob" Hoover, a World War II fighter pilot who once stole an airplane to escape a Nazi prison, has died, the Associated Press reported.

The Palos Verdes Estates resident died Tuesday at the age of 94, his close friend and fellow pilot, Bill Fanning told the AP.

"He was every pilot's icon," Fanning said, recalling his friend as one of the premier test pilots of the 1950s and '60s. "Bob tested everything. He flew them all."

Hoover learned to fly in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1937 before joining the Tennessee National Guard. In the Army, he flew more than 50 missions for the 52nd Fighter Group in Sicily during World War II before he was shot down.

He survived and spent several months at a German prison camp in Barth, Germany, before stealing a Nazi fighter plane and flying to safety to the Netherlands.

After the war, Hoover was assigned as a test pilot at Wright Field where he flew chase for Chuck Yeager for his sound-barrier-breaking flight in 1947. Hoover retired from the Air Force in 1948 to become a demonstration pilot.

-- Photo credit: D Ramey Logan/Wiki Commons