Williamjberk
Paul D. Berk, Sr.
edit{{Infobox person
|name=Paul D. Berk, Sr.
|image=paul_d_berk_sr.jpg
|image_size=
|caption=
|birth_date=Paul Daniel Berk
July 17, 1917
|birth_place=Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, US
|death_date=January 20, 2000
|death_place=Wethersfield, Connecticut, US
|occupation=Aviator
|spouse=Alda Berk
Paul D. Berk, Sr. was a senior test pilot for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft interwar period, the first pilot to fly over 1000 miles per hour in the state of Connecticut and a member of the Quiet Birdmen flying club, He was hired by Pratt & Whitney Aircraft as an experimental test pilot in 1943. He flew numerous piston aircraft using Pratt & Whitney engines including the B-29, B-45, B-50, B-52, and early fighter aircraft such as F-94, F-9Fs and F-86s. Later in his career as senior test pilot, he flew jet aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base in California. <ref name="Paul D. Berk, Flew Early Jet Fighters">The Morning Call [1]
Flying these later jet planes, such as the F-101 Voodoo fighter, Berk became the first man in Connecticut to fly over 1,000 mph. He retired when he reached the companies age limit for pilots. <ref name="Paul D. Berk, Flew Early Jet Fighters">The Morning Call [2]
Early life
editBerk was born in 1917 to farmer parents, Norman Berk and Eva (Bailey) Berk in Steinsville, Pennsylvania. [Steinsville, Pennsylvania]].<ref name="Paul D. Berk, Flew Early Jet Fighters">The Morning Call [3]
Berk grew up on his parents' 200-acre farm in Whitehall. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [4]
Early flying career
editPaul Berk was indeed a pioneer in aviation. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [5]
The 1934 graduate of Whitehall High School cut his flying teeth locally, became an instructor at A-B-E Airport, and with the advent of World War II taught ROTC students at Lehigh, Moravian and Muhlenberg how to fly. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [6]
Berk learned to fly at Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport in 1939. He quickly earned a commercial rating and became a flight instructor for the Army Air Corps and Navy Cadets. <ref name="Paul D. Berk, Flew Early Jet Fighters">The Morning Call [7]
Test Pilot
editPaul Berk became one of the greatest test pilots the world hardly knew. Almost everything Paul did was experimental and top secret. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [8]
He was hired by United Aircraft and Pratt & Whitney Engines in Connecticut as a test pilot on experimental aircraft. The planes he flew were known as Test Cells. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [9]
He tested the experimental versions of the Grumman Hellcat, the Corsair, the B-17, B-50, B-52 and 747. His experimental logbook alone recorded more than 18,000 hours in the air. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [10]
He flew every conceivable type of aircraft. He was the first man to fly more than 1,000 mph, first to soar to 75,000 feet and the first to fly three times the speed of sound. He flew a Lockheed Loadstar around the world solo. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [11]
And early in the NASA program he was fitted with a space suit, but the program dragged on and Paul became too old, his brother said. Several astronauts were longtime friends. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [12]
In the 1950s he taught Adm. Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear submarine, how to fly, for which he received a submarine excursion in return. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [13]
He taught movie stars Lloyd Nolan and William Holden how to fly. Nate (Berk) showed a picture of the two stars autographed by Holden -- `Paul, this is fun! I thought you said that flying was tough." <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [14]
Paul D. Berk Jr. noted that his father's boyhood idol was Charles Lindbergh. His nonstop flight to Paris had sparked his father's interest in flying. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [15]
In the early stages of WWII, Berk's son (Paul, Jr.) noted, Lindbergh was tasked with developing aerial combat tactics for the South Pacific campaign. Since his dad was the primary test pilot for the F4U Grumman Corsair, Lindbergh visited him in East Hartford, Conn., and spent a whole day picking his brain for information on the Corsair's flight characteristics. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [16]
`My dad was so proud that Lindbergh had asked his advice about flying. That airplane, along with the P-38 Lightning, was responsible for defeating the Japanese air force.` <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [17]
His father almost died in 1943 testing the F6F Grumman Hellcat fighter. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [18]
He was doing high-speed runs at 28,000 feet between New York and Boston, traveling at 450 knots. Suddenly, over Mount Kisco, N.Y., the propeller flew off and the engine caught fire. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [19]
`He knew he didn't have time to slow the plane down and make an emergency landing," his son explained. `He told me he slid the canopy back, rolled the plane over on its back, dropped out and pulled the ripcord on his parachute. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [20]
`His chute opened immediately and tore because the plane was traveling so fast that his oxygen mask flew off and he passed out from lack of oxygen. He awoke under 10,000 feet. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [21]
`Fortunately, the outer seam of the chute held, and he landed hard without injury on Billy Rose's estate." (Rose was a famed Broadway impresario.) <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [22]
There were numerous other emergencies, but Paul Berk was unflappable and always seemed to do the right thing to come back alive. <ref name="Paul Berk Soared Into Lehigh Valley Aviation History">The Morning Call [23]
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berk, Paul}}
[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Steinsville, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:American aviators]]
[[Category:Aviation pioneers]]
[[Category:Aviators from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Quiet Birdmen]]
[[Category:Pratt & Whitney Aircraft]]
[[Category:American aviation record holders]]
Williamjberk (talk) 15:56, 23 October 2017 (UTC)