Collins was identifiable to the airshow and fly-in crowd by his floppy hat, photographer’s vest, and willingness to arrive early and stay late to make sure the best of the day’s work was compiled on deadline for publication. One of his favorite flying assignments was documenting an around-the-world trip with friend Mike Laver in a Mitsubishi MU–2, during the aircraft model’s fiftieth anniversary. He delivered countless seminars, talks, and webinars on the technicalities of equipping aircraft with ADS-B technology in the runup to the January 1, 2020, equipage deadline. The longtime photojournalist who started an aviation publication called the Southern Aviator after leaving the newspaper business had a knack for exploring the envelope of journalism-whether it was audio, video, writing, or a combination of all three. The instrument-rated private pilot was remembered by the aviation community as outgoing, affable, and helpful to the people he met, whether it was on assignment, in the community, or at the local craft brewpub. Vaucher served as the honorary air boss for the Arsenal of Democracy warbird flyover of the nation’s capital in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of World War II in the European theater before the mission was scrubbed for weather.ĪOPA Technical Editor and Director of Business Operations Mike Collins died February 25 from COVID-19.

It culminated at age 101 when Vaucher supervised pilots from the navigator’s station during an honorary flight aboard the restored B–29 Doc on September 25, 2020. His intimate relationship with the four-engine bomber began when he delivered the first one to the armed forces from Boeing’s Pratt, Kansas, factory at age 24 in 1943. The decorated war veteran and GA pilot was 102 when he died at his New Jersey home February 7. Thomas Robert “Bob” Vaucher organized and led a massive Boeing B–29 Superfortress flyover of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, during a signing ceremony documenting Japan’s World War II surrender. In June 2020, members of the International Organization of Women Pilots (The Ninety-Nines) arranged a celebratory flyover of her residence in Palm City, Florida.

She touched our lives and we are grateful for all the memories,” the museum said.

“Bee, who earned her nickname because she flew like a bumblebee, was an inspiration to all in the aviation community. Her death was announced February 1 on the National WASP WWII Museum Facebook page. Haydu was a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the women’s cadre of pilots who served during World War II. Bernice “Bee” Falk Haydu, 100, died January 30.

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