Mira Slovak Was A Great American Who Beat The Odds On Many Fronts; He Trumped The Russians, Flew Airliners And Airshows, Raced Airplanes And Boats, And He Loved The Little Town Of Santa Paula, CA.

Mira Slovak succumbed to cancer at age 84 last week, and there are a lot of us in aviation that feel the loss. A pioneer of airshow performances in various airplanes, he hasn’t been on the circuit for quite a few years and his name may not be at the top of your list for airshow performers… but it should be.

Mira was a special kind of guy whose accomplishments far exceeded his persona. While those of us in aviation remember him for his piloting skills, there are many others that remember him as a champion race boat driver. As if high-performance planes and boats aren’t enough to gain the respect of all of us who love things that are fast and twitchy, he was also a great American who became that way because he wanted to; not because he was born into it.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Slovak wanted no part of the Russians when Czechoslovakia became part of the Russian Empire after World War II. By 1953 he was flying left seat for a Czechoslovakian airline and decided he could take no more of the Russians or communism. What he did to resolve the problem would be considered a crime today, but in those days of the Cold War he was a hero when he hijacked his own airliner and landed in West Germany.

After the usual rigmarole of paperwork and procedures he was allowed to come to the United States where he eventually settled down in the small town of Santa Paula, California. However, to use the term “settle down” doesn’t completely fit Mira because he was hardly the kind of guy that wanted to make things easy.

He had a successful airline pilot career but he is best known in aviation as an airshow aerobatic pilot. The guy was just plain crazy. While the maneuver known as the “Lomcevak” was actually first performed by another Czechoslovakian airshow pilot, Mira Slovak made it his signature maneuver and it’s still one of the most popular maneuvers performed in modern day airshows. By the way, Lomcevak is a Czech word that best translates into the term, “headache.”

As if doing crazy things in airplanes weren’t enough, Slovak started his career in hydroplane boat racing when he was hired to race a 2,000 horsepower hydroplane named Miss Wahoo. This monster was owned by none other than Bill Boeing Jr. Remember, the Boeing Company built boats before they got into the airplane business.

It takes a book to tell the whole story of Mira Slovak…he was a great guy and a great American; Mira Slovak will be missed.

(Image from Facebook.com)

FMI: www.lesliefield.com/personalities/mira_slovak_the_flying_czech.htm