Which Lockheed test pilot died taking off in a Super Constellation in 1980?

Herman Richard Salmon, nicknamed "Fish", was born on 11 July 1913 in Milwaukee. He first flew at age 14 and had a license by 18. In the 1930s he worked as an airshow pilot, skydiver, and race pilot. He joined Lockheed in 1940, ferrying Hudson bombers to Montreal for the RAF, and in 1945 Tony LeVier brought him into the engineering test pilot division.

There he spin-tested the P-38 Lightning and dive-tested the P-80 Shooting Star, the XF-90, and the F-94C Starfire, and carried out the certification trials for two Constellation models before the US civil aviation authority. He also made the first flights of the L-188 Electra, the P-3 Orion, the YF-104A, and the XFV-1. He succeeded LeVier as chief test pilot.

Already retired, Salmon continued training crews and ferrying aircraft. On 22 June 1980 he was in command of ferrying the Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation N74CA from Bakalar Municipal Airport in Columbus, Indiana, to Seattle-Tacoma, with final destination Alaska. The aircraft crashed during takeoff.

Salmon, another crew member, and a passenger died. There were five survivors, including his son Randall Salmon, who was flying as co-pilot.

The man who had certified the Constellation for civil aviation died at the controls of one of its descendants, when the aircraft had long ceased being an airliner and survived as a freighter in the hands of small operators.

His name remained forever linked to a prototype: the XFV-1, an experimental vertical take-off fighter that rested on its tail, was named in his honor.