Landing Gear

Corliss went from the front lines to the silver screen By DAVE McMILLION / Staff Writer, Charles Town photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer SHENANDOAH JUNCTION, W.Va. - In addition to a long stint in the military, his work as a beef farmer and even a stab at politics, Greg Corliss can boast of his time on the silver screen. The Jefferson County, W.Va., man was one of the many military pilots selected in 1968 to fly planes for the making of the movie "Tora, Tora, Tora," which was about the events leading up to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the attack.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - Carl Linn flew the second B-29 bomber that took off from the United States and went to the Pacific during World War II. As a member of the Army Air Corps, the precursor of the Air Force, he was a radar operator on B-29s until 1945. Linn, 80, had not flown on a B-29 since the war until Monday, when as an early birthday present his family arranged for him to fly from North Carolina to Martinsburg aboard the only B-29 that Commemorative Air Force members said is still flying.

andrear@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Fasten your seat belts for country musician Aaron Tippin's hard-drivin', foot-thumpin' concerts at Chambersburg's Capitol Theatre this weekend. Tippin will perform at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15. "We think country music's fun, so we like to have some fun with it," said Tippin, 46, of Tennessee. "Tell everybody to wear their seat belts. This isn't going to be a sit-down show. " Tippin fans will be treated to a mixed bag of hits from the singer's collection of "blue-collar type of everyday music," he said.

julieg@herald-mail.com William Hann heard the plane before he saw it. He saw the single-engine Beechcraft for three seconds after it emerged from fog and before it crashed into two boulders on the western side of Fairview Mountain west of Clear Spring around 11:30 Friday morning. "The engines didn't sound right. You could hear the engines cutting in and out," said Hann, 37, of Warfordsburg, Pa. Hann and Lucas Coleman, 23, also of Warfordsburg, were building a large shed on property just off National Pike when they looked up and saw the plane about 100 yards above their heads and the shed's roof line.

Man charged with assault on officer A Hagerstown man faces assault charges in connection with a Saturday morning incident in which a Maryland State Police trooper was punched. Eric Dominique Davis, 26, of Hagerstown, is charged with second-degree assault, resisting arrest, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving on a suspended license, fleeing and various traffic citations, Trooper First Class Debbie Hamby said. Hamby said she stopped a Nissan on Virginia Avenue at Harwood Road at 3:58 a.m. Saturday after she saw it driving erratically.

Some aviation experts say the C-82 is not the "Flying Boxcar" as it has been repeatedly referenced by the Hagerstown Aviation Museum and news media outlets. To at least one retired Fairchild worker, repeated references made by the Hagerstown Aviation Museum and news outlets calling the C-82 Packet military cargo plane the "Flying Boxcar" is like calling a Chevrolet a Ford. Flying Boxcar is the official U.S. Air Force name given to the C-119, which was "an improved version" of the C-82 Packet, said Bob van der Linden, chairman of the aeronautics division at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Man held on assault and burglary charges A motorist who was stopped Tuesday morning for driving 20 mph above the posted limit was wanted in Baltimore on charges of second-degree assault and second-degree burglary, according to Maryland State Police. At 1:55 a.m., Sgt. D.L. Lowry saw a car traveling 85 mph on Interstate 70 near Beaver Creek Road, police said. Newton Baker Jeter Jr., 39, of 2000 Arbor Way, Apartment 921 Martinsburg, W.Va., identified himself, but did not have a license or registration.

SCOTLAND, Pa. - One corner of Ronald Morgan's workshop looks like a scaled-down version of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum, with scores of remote control model airplanes mounted on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. cont. from front page Some of the aircraft, however, appear to be aerodynamically challenged: The witch on a broomstick, a motorized American flag and an airborne lawnmower among them. A stop sign with a propeller looks ungainly but "flies extremely well," Morgan said.

John Leather wears earplugs to church, but it's not the sermon that the 88-year-old World War II veteran is trying to muffle. He said he wears the earplugs to drown out the rumble of a drum that's played when the congregation sings hymns. “I've had to leave the service a couple of times,” Leather said with a shiver. “It reminds me of artillery coming in.” Nearly 70 years ago, Leather was a sergeant in the 17th Airborne Division, a unit of paratroopers and glider soldiers who saw some of World War II's most ferocious fighting during the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Varsity.

A longtime employee of a Hagerstown land surveying firm, Richard Rice was thinking of a career change back in 2001 when he happened on the website for Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics. The training and job possibilities sounded exciting, but Rice realized he couldn't work and still drive from his home near Greencastle, Pa., to Pittsburgh for classes every day, nor could he afford to move to Pittsburgh. “So I put the thought on a back burner,” Rice said. Then late last year, having been laid off after “20-some” years with the surveying company, Rice heard that PIA had opened a campus at Hagerstown Regional Airport, teaching aviation maintenance technology.