BLUE SKIES- AL WIMER

[BuckyD]

Sad news today from longtime aviation press photographer Tom Kraft, via our colleague Jim Peterson, regarding well-known air racing photo-journalist/historian & WW2/Korean & Vietnam War USAF veteran- Al Wimer.

I'll take the liberty of posting TK's email announcement to Jim for those who are friends of Al's or interested in knowing about his passing & his career background thumbnail...

"Jim,

I don't know if a media email list was put out this year, if so, please inform
the group that Al Wimer passed away today. For those who didn't know Al,
he retired as a Colonel in the Air Force and flew B-24's in WWII, P51's. F80's.
and F86's in Korea, C47's during the Berlin Air Lift , and an assortment of
aircraft in Vietnam. At Reno, he was a Formula 1 historian and has a record
of that classes races dating back to the 40's. He was the epitome of the
'greatest generation'.

Hope that all is well with you."

Tom Kraft

Thanks, Tom & Jim for your communication today. Al Was a very classy guy & he will indeed be missed by many.

"BLUE SKIES & TAILWINDS FOREVER", AL WIMER - See you up in The Great Airport in The Sky someday in the future.

DBD

[wingman]

Re: BLUE SKIES- AL WIMER

And what a wonderful, crusty old bird the Colonel was, too. Jumped out of a crippled B-24 over the coast of China in WW2, and flew Mustangs in Korea. I well remember some pictures he showed one year at Reno. He was flying ground attack missions in Korea -- after firing his rockets at a ground target he would roll inverted and shoot pictures of his results with a Leica camera! Great quality photos, too -- he was always a fine photographer. After retirement he became quite well known in Nature photography circles for his work shooting birds (the feathered kind).

During the last fifteen years his big ongoing project was a very complete history of Goodyear and Formula 1 air racing. He had gathered photos and data on every Formula Racer ever raced -- including those from the obscure period in the 1950s between the demise of the Cleveland races and the beginning of the Reno era.

A great man -- I'm glad I knew him...

Neal