Terry Pappas
AUTHOR

Terry Pappas

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Terry spent 41 years flying aircraft, primarily for the USAF and NASA. His career started during the Vietnam era, conducting officer training while in college at the University of Florida, being commissioned there and attending AF pilot training at Reese AFB in Lubbock, Texas in 1971. After earning his wings he became an instructor pilot in the T-38A, training USAF and foreign national pilots in that high performance aircraft.

He went on to fly numerous aircraft, in and out of the Air Force, to include the B-52G, while stationed at Blytheville AFB, Arkansas, ’81-‘85. From there he was selected to fly the mach 3 plus, SR-71, stationed at Beale AFB, California from ’85-’90. When the Blackbird ended its operational service of over two decades in 1990, he transferred to Edwards AFB, near Los Angeles, and served as an instructor pilot and flight examiner in the T-38A for the Air Force Flight Test Center, until he retired from the AF in 1994.

Terry flew Learjets with camera systems onboard filming aerial scenes for the movie industry for a couple years. Then he accepted a position as a demonstration pilot for an aircraft manufacturer. There he demonstrated new business jets to chief pilots and company presidents around the world. He flew for a privately held business in Las Vegas, Nevada for two years before accepting a position as an Aerospace Engineer and Research Pilot with NASA in 1998. There his duties included: T-38 Project Pilot, IP for astronauts in T-38, Gulfstream I, II and III executive transport, Super Guppy transport for outsize cargo, and DC-9 for micro-gravity research flights. He also managed a number of training functions for Aircraft Operations Division. He has over 10,000 flying hours, most of which are hour-long flights, with numerous instrument approaches and landings.

Terry retired from NASA in Oct 2011. He spends most of his time now pursuing writing and speaking projects. Terry’s hobbies include golf and photography. He lives in Houston, Texas.
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