Aviation museum inducts 3 in hall of fame

Robert "Hoot" Gibson had the same routine before each of his five space shuttle missions: with his wife he would go over his will, life insurance policy, power of attorney and where he wanted to be buried, in case tragedy struck.

"You don't dwell on it, but you deal with it and move on," the Huntington High School and Suffolk Community College graduate said Monday during his induction into the Long Island Air and Space Hall of Fame at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in East Garden City.

Gibson, 64, also a former "Top Gun" pilot, was inducted along with Tuskegee Airman Spann Watson, who lived in Westbury for decades; famed female aviator Elinor Smith who lived in Freeport; and August Martin, the first African-American commercial airline pilot in the United States. They joined six previous honorees including Charles Lindbergh. Watson and Smith died last year; he and Martin are the first African-American honorees.

Despite the dangers of space flight, Gibson said the thing he remembers most from his 18 years as an astronaut was the exhilaration and plain fun he had doing it.

"You're on your way to Disneyland," he said. As the countdown to launch grows closer, "We don't want to hear the 's' word -- scrubbed," or mission aborted because of technical problems.

He said the shuttle accelerates to 17,500 mph within 81/2 minutes after takeoff -- fast enough to cross the United States in six minutes, or go around the world in 90 minutes. "It's a little hard to breathe" during the first eight minutes, but then the shuttle is suddenly in outer space and "you can float in mid-air . . . Being weightless is just pure fun."

Still, Gibson, whose wife, Rhea Seddon, was also a shuttle astronaut, said he suffered dark days in January 1986 when he returned from a shuttle flight less than two weeks before the Challenger exploded after takeoff. He was friends with everyone aboard.

"We had just finished a brilliant year" in 1985 with a half-dozen shuttle launches, he said, and "were looking forward to a big 1986. We went from being on top of the world to being in the deepest, darkest hole you could imagine."

Watson's family said he faced his own challenges as an African-American who wanted to join the military as a pilot in the 1930s but could not because blacks were barred from the armed services. He eventually joined the Tuskegee Airmen, a special unit of black pilots who were allowed to fight in World War II, albeit in their own segregated unit.

One of his sons, Marlowe Watson, said the family was pleased he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame here. "He loved Long Island," he said.

Smith's daughter, Patricia Sullivan of Manhattan, recalled how her mother once flew under four bridges around Manhattan and broke world records for things such as endurance. Sullivan said her mother would have been thrilled to know she was being inducted into the Hall of Fame at the museum, which she visited many times. "Creating this museum was her dream," Sullivan said.