Gen. Robert L. Scott

As a young man growing up in Macon, Georgia, Robert L. Scott, Jr. dreamed of becoming a pilot. He built his own glider at age 12 and flew it off of a three-story house. He only had enough money to build it out of knotty pine, however, and when his main wing span broke he unceremoniously crashed into Cherokee rose bush. It was the last time he crashed an aircraft.

Bob Scott pursued his dream and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) in 1932. A year later he got his wings and, in 1934 he carried the airmail from New jersey to Cleveland in P-12's. He then flew open-cockpit pursuit planes in Panama and when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was training pilots in California. Scott tried everything he could think of to get into combat. Finally after telling a small lie about his experience in B-17's (he had none!), he flew a secret mission to China with a group of B-17 bombers that was to attack Japan during the night after Jimmy Doolittle's raid. When he got to India, however, the mission was canceled and he was reassigned flying cargo missions over the "Hump". One day Scott met his hero - General Claire Chennault - and as he says "lived happily ever after flying guest missions with the "Flying Tigers." In July 1942 he became the first commander of the Flying Tigers' descendants - the 23rd Fighter Group in China - and quickly became an ace with 13 confirmed and 9 probable aerial victories.

Shortly thereafter, he was recalled to the United States to make public relations war bond and war production plant speeches. In Buffalo, New York, he was introduced to publisher Charles Scribner who asked him to write a book about his experiences in China. Scott spent the next three days and nights, before returning to China, dictating some ninety-thousand Georgia-accented words on a hundred wax cylinders. He used the title he had thought of while wounded in China: "God is my Co-Pilot." The book became and instant best seller and the movie premiered in Macon in 1945. Scott was there riding a water buffalo down Cherry Street. His life story is truly amazing. He flew more than 33,000 hours in numerous planes - including the F-15 Eagle at age 85 and the B-1 Bomber at age 89. He traveled around the world, riding a motorcycle across Europe, walking the entire 2,000 mile length of the Great Wall of China at age 72 and carrying the Olympic flame through Warner Robins in 1996.

In 1986 the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, Georgia invited him to bring some of his memorabilia to put on display. he drove across country from Arizona to drop off a photo or two and was so impressed with the museum he decided to stay. He was enshrined in the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame in 1989 and in 1996 the Museum restored a P-40 in his honor. He is the spirit of the Museum of Aviation, a true American hero and an unmatched part of United States aviation history.