Sky King
The Aeronautic Cowboy
Sky King - one of my favorite Saturday morning shows as a kid. It premiered on September 16, 1951 and last aired on March 8, 1959 and was about a former military pilot who, in this western adventure series, used his airplane ( a Cessna 310B called the Songbird) to patrol the skies over his Flying Crown Ranch and wherever he was needed to rescue those in distress. Out of the clear blue of the western sky comes - Sky King! He and his niece Penny had many adventures chasing the bad guys in the Songbird and I often wondered as I got older - how many of us boomers became pilots as a result of watching this show?
But did you know?
A lot of boomers remember seeing this show in the 60's (I was one of them) because while the show ended in 1959 it was shown in reruns for years later. Sadly, Kirby Grant, the actor that played Sky King, died in a 1985 automobile accident while on his way to Cape Canaveral to be honored by the shuttle astronauts for his achievements in encouraging aviation and space flight. He was also coming to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Isn't life cruel sometimes? Here is a man that inspired millions of kids to become interested in aviation - who dies in a stupid car wreck - and a year later the Challenger blows up. Thank God the poor man didn't live to see that!
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