Donald Taylor (aviator) Totally Explained

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Donald P. Taylor is an American aviator, notable for being in the late summer and early fall of 1976 the first person in history to successfully fly a homebuilt aircraft around the world. From an early age, he'd resolved "I will build an airplane, and I'll fly it round-the-world." His plane, Victoria '76 (named for the only one of Ferdinand Magellan's ships to complete her mission), a Lycoming-powered Thorp T-18 (N455DT) was fitted with improved communications and navigational equipment as well as a new fuel system after his initial 1973 round-the-world attempt had to be aborted due to bad weather between Japan and the Aleutian Islands. Taylor, who lived at the time in California, returned to his starting point of Oshkosh, Wisconsin a hero two months to the day after the 1976-08-01 start of his eastbound journey. The planning of this circumnavigation was especially complicated considering that both the Peoples Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were closed to U.S. general aviators at the time. Taylor flew Victoria 76 to Australia and back in 1980. Taylor flew Victoria '76 to both the true North Pole and the Mgnetic North Pole in 1984. Although the aircraft had a special heritage, he use "her" for routine transportation to-from his isolated ranch in the Southern California high semi-desert. In the early 1980s he'd offered the T-18 to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. for display, but he was unable to obtain a firm agreement from them to display her to the public as he wished. Instead, Victoria '76 is now on display at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture museum in Oshkosh.
Taylor retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel from the United States Air Force in 1962, having seen action during World War II in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. During the Korean War he was in the frozen waste of Alaska servicing the newly created Distant Early Warning Line [DEW-Line] stations with air cargo and electronics expertise. In the Late 1950's he commanded an Air Training Command (ATC) Detachment that was responsible for teaching Thor Missile maintenance and operation to RAF personnel in Central England.
Taylor has maintained an active involvement and interest in aviation. He was on a mission-control team supporting the round-the-world flight of the Rutan Voyager in December of 1986. On 1 Oct 2007 he turned 89-years young and was still flying.

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