Fighter Pilot

Oakley, the Irvine-based company best known for its sunglasses and visors, is rolling out a high-tech snow goggle that lets you see your speed, location and even text messages while skiing down a slope. The Airwave, which goes on sale Wednesday for $599, has a build-in display that provides features similar to what a fighter pilot has on their helmets. The display screen, about the size of a finger nail, is located just inside on the right side of visor. Despite the size, the image you see is comparable to viewing a 14-inch monitor displayed about five feet away.

Oakley, the Irvine-based company best known for its sunglasses and visors, is rolling out a high-tech snow goggle that lets you see your speed, location and even text messages while skiing down a slope. The Airwave, which goes on sale Wednesday for $599, has a build-in display that provides features similar to what a fighter pilot has on their helmets. The display screen, about the size of a finger nail, is located just inside on the right side of visor. Despite the size, the image you see is comparable to viewing a 14-inch monitor displayed about five feet away.

Rudolph "Rudy" Augarten, 78, an American fighter pilot during World War II who went on to aid Israel's neophyte air force. Augarten parachuted into Normandy in 1944 when the Germans shot down his P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane. After a French farm family hid him for three weeks, he tried walking back to Allied lines, but he was captured and imprisoned by the Nazis. He and a British soldier escaped through their farmhouse prison's attic. Augarten returned to his U.S.

President Obama was aboard his Marine One helicopter flying to a celebrity-studded fundraiser in Holmby Hills last February when a single-engine plane, flying radio silent, breached a no-fly zone over Los Angeles. An ear-piercing horn rocketed Capt. Luke Campagne to his feet 50 miles away. His G-suit already strapped on, Campagne sprinted out of a windowless, cinder block barracks at Riverside's March Air Reserve Base to an F-16 fighter jet waiting in a hangar. Within minutes, two Fighting Falcons screamed over Hemet, then banked west toward Long Beach, crossing the Santa Ana Mountains at a hair below supersonic speeds - guns and missiles "hot.

A 23-year-old woman who shook up the male-dominated Israeli military with a court-won right to compete to be a fighter pilot has failed to make the grade, the army said Thursday. Air Force Lt. Alice Miller flunked qualifying exams after a Supreme Court victory in November gave her the right to try to win a place in the men-only pilots' course. The military bans female soldiers from jobs that could place them in combat but had to make an exception for Miller when she won her case.

Elwood T. Driver, 70, a pioneer black fighter pilot who later became vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Driver joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 and became one of the "Tuskegee airmen," the nation's first black combat pilots. He shot down a German aircraft over the Anzio beachhead in 1944 while serving with the all-black 99th Fighter Squadron. After retiring from the Air Force in 1962 as a major, Driver worked for five years for North American Aviation in Anaheim.

Richard James McGan, a retired Marine fighter pilot and logistic engineer, died Saturday. He was 62. The Camarillo resident, born in Omaha, Neb., flew missions in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. McGan retired from the military in 1976 and spent several years traveling around the country with his wife, Muriel McGan. He came to the area to take a job with Litton Data Command Systems in Agoura. He later worked for VSE Corp. in Camarillo. McGan was a member of the Marine Corps Aviation Assn.

After U.S. fighter jets tangled in a mock battle over central Florida two years ago, Air Force officials were chagrined to learn that more than a third of the planes had been "killed" by their own forces. In Air Force jargon, such friendly-fire losses are called fratricide. In pilots' slang, the victims "mort themselves out." Whatever the term, the nightmare of comrades unwittingly shooting one another is just one of the hazards in today's high-speed, high-tech world of aerial combat.

Antony G. A. Fisher, 73, a decorated British fighter pilot who was scheduled to be knighted for 40 years of service to his country. As World War II ended, Fisher found himself with medals for his performance as a pilot in the Battle of Britain, an engineering degree from Cambridge University and a new interest in the philosophy of economics. He went on to write a book, "Fisher's Concise History of Economic Bungling."

A 20-year-old woman marched among rows of blue-uniformed cadets on a desert airstrip, her braided hair setting her apart as she became Israel's first female fighter pilot. Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, the military's chief of staff, praised 2nd Lt. Roni Zuckerman for finishing sixth in her class of 70. Zuckerman, who graduated Thursday, will enter the air force's most elite combat unit and will fly F-16 fighter planes. Zuckerman hails from Kibbutz Lochamei Hagettaot, which is Hebrew for ghetto fighters.

When Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, on July 20, 1969, he uttered a phrase that has been carved in stone and quoted across the planet: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind. " The grainy black-and-white television images of him taking his first lunar stroll were watched by an estimated 600 million people worldwide - and firmly established him as one of the great heroes of the 20th century. Armstrong, who had heart surgery in early August, died Saturday in Cincinnati at 82, said NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs.

With films such as"Unstoppable"and "Man on Fire," Tony Scott told adrenaline-filled stories about fearless men - spies and cops, race car drivers and fighter pilots - who live by a code and face death on their own terms. He filled his cinematic landscape with intrigue and action, avoiding computer effects in favor of real-life stunts with speeding trains and screaming jets, even once shutting down the Mississippi River to blow up a ferryboat. In life, the British director-producer shared many characteristics with his alpha-male action heroes.

Some of the nation's top aviators are refusing to fly the radar-evading F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet with ongoing problems with the oxygen systems that have plagued the fleet for four years. At the risk of significant reprimand - or even discharge from the Air Force - fighter pilots are turning down the opportunity to climb into the cockpit of the F-22, the world's most expensive fighter jet. The Air Force did not reveal how many of its 200 F-22 pilots, who are stationed at seven military bases across the country, declined their assignment orders.

After combing through a long list of astronauts, fighter pilots, and space geeks, British billionaire Richard Branson named a new astronaut pilot to join his start-up space venture that aims to lift paying passengers into space. Branson's company Virgin Galactic announced Wednesday that former U.S. Air Force test pilot Keith Colmer will join chief pilot David Mackay to begin flight training and testing of the company's revolutionary aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Colmer was selected from more than 500 applicants, which included about 10 current and former astronauts, Virgin Galactic Chief Executive George T. Whitesides said in a recent interview at the company's office in Pasadena.

John R. Alison Decorated WWII ace fighter pilot John R. Alison, 98, a World War II fighter pilot who helped lead a daring and unprecedented Allied air invasion of Burma, died of natural causes Monday at his home in Washington, D.C., his family said. Alison was a retired Air Force major general and a former Northrop Corp. executive. His wartime achievements included six aerial victories, qualifying him as an ace, according to the Air Force Assn., an independent organization in Arlington, Va., that promotes public understanding of aerospace power.

'Back to Bataan' Wayne stars as a U.S. Army colonel in this stirring 1945 film about the aftermath of the Battle of Bataan on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. 'Flying Tigers' Released in 1942, Wayne's first war film finds the Duke playing a fighter pilot for the legendary unit that protected China against Japanese attack. 'The Sands of Iwo Jima' Wayne earned his first lead actor Oscar nomination for his memorable turn as a tough Marine sergeant whipping recruits into shape in this 1949 gem directed by Allan Dwan.

Soviet war hero Alexei Maresyev, a fighter pilot who lost the lower parts of both legs in World War II and then returned to combat, died Friday, minutes before an early celebration to mark his 85th birthday, aides said. Maresyev was taken to a Moscow hospital Friday morning with severe heart troubles, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported.

Norwegian women, who long ago shattered the dominance of men in politics, are breaking into one of the last male bastions--the military. Women have taken jobs as fighter pilots and submarine officers and can be found in foreign hot spots as part of United Nations peacekeeping forces. And if a war erupts, Norwegian women are not barred from combat as they are in several other North Atlantic Treaty Organization states.

Some sports figures really are heroes. ? On Veterans Day, we salute them. ? Rocky Bleier won four Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers and a Purple Heart in Vietnam, where he was shot. ? Gene Tunney's reign as heavyweight champion in the 1920s was sandwiched around tours of duty with the Marines during World War I and in the Navy during World War II. ? Before his enlistment in the Army and deployment in Iraq, Tim James was a first-round draft pick of the Miami Heat.

Air Force officials say that a missing fighter pilot probably died instantly when his jet collided with another plane over the Atlantic Ocean. Authorities called off the search for Capt. Nicholas Giglio, who had been missing since Thursday night's crash. Air Force Col. Joe Guastella said experts analyzed data from the second plane, which landed safely, and interviewed the surviving pilot to determine Giglio's fate. The colonel said investigators believe that parts on the bottom of the second plane pierced the canopy of Giglio's plane when they collided about 30 miles northeast of Charleston.