HOOT GIBSON'S HANGAR PODCAST

In this episode of Hoot's Hangar, Hoot discuss the making of "Top Gun: Maverick" with Navy F/A-18 pilot Frank Weisser. Frank recounts his involvement in the film, detailing his transition from the Blue Angels to the Super Hornet and his role in low-altitude scenes. He praises the professionalism of aerial coordinator Kevin LaRosa and the attention to detail from Paramount. Frank als...

Hoot interviews Top Gun: Maverick F-18 Super Hornet pilot Frank "Walleye" Weisser. Frank is a former Blue Angels pilot who was invited to perform special maneuvers for the critically acclaimed movie. “Top Gun actually had a guideline that says we will not take a Lieutenant Junior Grade pilot, because he isn't experienced enough or advanced enough. But because Jim Ruliffson had been...

Where else but Hoot Gibson’s Hangar can you hear the inside stories of what it’s like to become both a NASA astronaut and a country music star in the same conversation? Season two is now streaming. In this episode of Hoot Gibson’s Hangar, watch and listen to the second installment of Hoot’s conversation with fellow pilot and country music superstar, Aaron Tippin. In 2025, both men will be inducted...

We are excited to premier the highly anticipated Season 2, of Hoot Gibson’s Hangar with two episodes that you just cannot miss. When highly rated pilot and Country music superstar Aaron Tippin recently visited Hoot’s Hanger, an absolutely compelling conversation about flying, careers, family and music took place. Aaron Tippin has been a country chart topper for decades. He has released a total of...

Hoot and pilot/country music star Aaron Tippin share their childhood memories on how they got started in aviation. They managed to sing a little bit to :) Support the show "THE MAN WHO CAN FLY ANYTHING"

“ Because what happens during the reentry, we hit the top of the atmosphere, which is about 80 nautical nautical miles up - 400,000 feet. The flight path angle when we hit the air has to be one half degree down, one half a degree. If it's steeper than that you're gonna burn up. Because the thermal protection system on the orbiter, which the orbiter by the way is made out of aluminum, tha...

“ I led the race for the first two laps. I was in the turn passing the pylons, and of course, all my attention is devoted out in front of me because we're only about 30 feet above the ground and I'm doing about 225 miles an hour. All of a sudden, I feel this, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And I was actually in a little bit of trouble because of where I was sitting at such a low altitude....

Robert “Hoot” Gibson Wins Unlimited Gold Race in “Strega” at 2015 National Championship Air Races, unseats six-time gold winner Steve Hinton in “Voodoo.” Robert “Hoot” Gibson won the Unlimited Gold Race at the Fifty-Second Annual National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada, Sept. 20, unseating six-time gold winner Steve Hinton Jr. Gibson flew the P-51D Mustang Strega and covered the course in...

Mission Control: “Challenger, go for throttle up.” Challenger: “Roger, go for throttle up.” I would rate the Challenger investigation as one of the biggest ones that I ever took part in, probably the biggest. I had been apart of several accident and incident investigations while at NASA. I had been deposed to testify in a F-14 crash case when I was in active duty in the Navy. But yeah, the challen...

“That was the dream of a lifetime come true. I had wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and a test pilot just like my dad from the time I was 10 years old. And after not getting selected the first time I applied to test pilot school, when I got the word that yes, I'm on the list and I'll be going to test pilot school starting in June of 1976. I was just positively thrilled. When I first...

“As soon as I saw orders to F-4 Phantoms, I knew that and particularly since I was going to the West Coast, I knew that we would be taking part in the Vietnam Conflict. It wasn't a popular war. Those of us that lived through it, at that period of time knew that the country was somewhat torn apart by it. But I had signed on to be a Naval Officer and when you sign on to be a Naval Officer, you&...

“I guess I was fairly apprehensive the whole time that I was flying in combat and I guess there's good reason to feel that way, I'm there to cause a lot of damage and a lot of harm and therefore they would like to damage me, and I was 25 years old at that time.” -Hoot Gibson. Hoot Gibson’s Hangar, aviation’s premier podcast, hosted by America’s premier aviator, Hoot Gibson, “The Man That...

“And now SpaceX with the Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 vehicle are carrying our astronauts from American soil once again, up to the International Space Station. So we had an expression early in the space shuttle program that was Launched Fever. Catch it! I think we are catching launch fever once again, because we can go to Cape Canaveral and we can watch American rockets, launching Americans into s...

The TELESAT-l (ANIK C-1) communications satellite was deployed attached to the payload assist module (PAM-D) motor. SYNCOM IV-3 (also known as LEASAT-3) was also deployed but the spacecraft sequencer failed to initiate the antenna deployment, spin up and ignition of perigee kick motor. The mission was extended two days to make certain the sequencer start lever was in the proper position. Griggs an...

"At the time, I was the Chief Astronaut for NASA. And I'll never forget, I'm driving to work one morning in my car.  And I heard on the radio the announcer says here's something interesting, as of this morning, Dr. Rhea Seddon, who's in space aboard the space shuttle, Columbia, has more time in space than her husband, the chief astronaut, Hoot Gibson. I remember my first t...

“I arrived back home from work at NASA for the day. I'm walking through my garage and Holy Smokes! here is this big red shipping container with white and black letters on the side of it that says EAGLES . Joe Walsh had sent me a Rolland Stereo Chorus amplifier, and probably even more valuable than that, the shipping container that says EAGLES on it. I'll bet if I showed up at the Hard Ro...

"We were a top secret classified department of defense mission. So, to this day, if I told you what we carried in the shuttle, you could never leave this hangar. One of the fascinating things about it was that my crew and I got briefed into what our capabilities in space are, in terms of the military, and again, it's not weaponry. After we had gone to orbit and on the first day, we deplo...

"STS 27 was my was my third launch and it was only the second launch after the Challenger accident. Well, I will never forget, we maneuvered the arm and Mike Mullane was my boom arm operator. So he moved the arm over there and we brought up the television image of the right wing. And I looked at what I was seeing and I said to myself, we are going to die." -Hoot Gibson. Thirty-Five years...

"STS 27 was my was my third launch and it was only the second launch after the Challenger accident. Well, I will never forget, we maneuvered the arm and Mike Mullane was my boom arm operator. So he moved the arm over there and we brought up the television image of the right wing. And I looked at what I was seeing and I said to myself, we are going to die." -Hoot Gibson. Thirty-Five years...

All New Audio Podcasts from USA’s Greatest Living Aviator! Robert L. “Hoot” Gibson is an aeronautical engineer, a fighter pilot (300 carrier landings in Southeast Asia; F-4’s & F-14’s), an astronaut (five Shuttle Missions, 36 days in space, Chief NASA Astronaut), an airline captain (Southwest Airlines), a homebuilder (Cassutt Formula I pylon racer), an Unlimited Class Air Race Champion and a h...