Bruce King Hallock

Infobox Person
name=Bruce King Hallock


birth_date=birth date|1921|4|28|mf=y
birth_place=Medina, Ohio, United States
dead=dead
death_date=death date and age|2005|11|30|1921|4|28|mf=y
death_place=Austin, Texas

Bruce King Hallock was born in Medina, Ohio, the second child of Macy Orsen and Clara Ulmer Hallock (both deceased). He was an avid aviator working in both design and as a pilot, including piloting Lyndon Johnson.

Biography

From the age of 5 when Bruce K. Hallock got his first glimpse of an airplane at a county fair, he remained enthralled with flying machines. As an engineering student at Case Institute of Technology, he flew one of his tailless models in a national contest and took first place in the category of original design. At the beginning of WWII, he worked as an aeronautical engineer at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. In 1942 he entered the Navy and flew PBM flying boats and other transports until shortly after the war’s end.

While in the Navy, he met the love of his life, Enid MacPherson. On Christmas Eve 1943, she was singing at an event for servicemen in Austin. He cut a dashing figure in his Navy greatcoat. She surrendered her phone number. They married May 29, 1945, in Miami where Bruce was stationed.

After the war, he became a partner in Austin Aero Service, which operated for about 3 years at St. Edward’s Airport south of town. Flight instruction and air charter were his mainstay, but Bruce’s great dream was to design and build airplanes. The same year his first son was born, he started work on his first original design, the Road Wing.

When the airport business petered out, he bought an old cargo plane, a Noorduyn Norseman, and began importing lobster from Belize. Later he sold the plane to missionaries in Peru. Bruce and Enid delivered the airplane themselves. That perilous journey across the Andes and into the Amazon jungle only whetted their appetites for more such adventures. But the family was growing, and a living still had to be made.Bruce worked briefly as a flight test engineer, working on Chance Vought Corporation’s experimental F7U Cutlass. But he missed flying. He found his niche as an executive pilot, but he still held fast to his dream. In 1958 his original tailless design, the [http://www.roadabletimes.com/roadables-integ_watr_halok.html Road Wing] , on which he had tirelessly worked for more than a decade, took to the air.

Then the adventure bug bit again. In 1959 Bruce quit a good job. The whole family -- Bruce, Enid, and four boys ranging in age from 4 to 13 -- squeezed into a VW Microbus and headed down the Pan American Highway. They spent 6 months driving all the way to the Panama Canal, then continuing by air to Colombia.

Back in Austin, Bruce landed a job as Lyndon B. Johnson’s (LBJ's) private pilot. He flew LBJ and other notables during John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. LBJ wanted Bruce to come to Washington with him, but Bruce had other plans. He wanted to build more airplanes. But he still had to make a living. So he continued flying. One of the fellows he flew for manufactured golf carts. Scrutinizing the product, Bruce decided he could do better. He invented a unique vehicle called the Motor Rickshaw, a sort of golfcart-cum-motorcycle, which he engineered from scratch. It was street-legal. He set up a factory and produced the vehicles for a while.

But he couldn’t stay away from aviation. He went to work as aeronautical consultant and chief pilot for UT’s Defense Research Lab (now the Applied Research Lab). He flew a DC-3 full of electronic gear -- secret stuff. Between consulting and flying assignments, he worked on his own not-so-secret project -- the Pterodactyl, another tailless wonder. In the late 1970s he served as president of the Austin chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, encouraging others and helping them get their homebuilts flying. Bruce and his classic Ryan Navion were regulars at fly-ins around the country. He continued working on his own tailless designs.

Bruce Hallock died November 30, 2005 in Austin, Texas. He is survived by his wife Enid M. Hallock, his brother Macy Monroe Hallock, and his sister Clara Louise Pearson. His younger sister Helen Hallock Manning preceded him in death. He is also survived by his sons Bruce, Donald, Gary, and Mark; his grandchildren Stephen, Iola, Andrew, Robert, and Thomas; and his daughters-in-law Leela Devi, Priscilla Spitler, Christine Holt Hallock, and Pamela Dillon Hallock.

External links

* [http://bkhallock.org Memorial website for Bruce K. Hallock]