Suitor, William P.
Person
Dates
- Usage: 1944-
Biographical Note
William P. Suitor was born on December 26, 1944. At age 19, he was offered a job at Bell to test pilot the Bell Rocket Belt. His first tethered flight took place on March 26, 1964. Over the next two months Suitor made a total of 60 tethered flights before flying free outside. From 1964 to 1970 he travelled all over the world for Bell demonstrating the rocketbelt as well as flying and testing the Bell Pogo. Suitor has made over 1,000 flights in 14 different types of rocket-powered flying machines and in 2009, he wrote the Rocketbelt Pilot's Manual..
Source and Further Reading:
Bill Suitor. 2014. Bill Suitor home page (website). Last modified October 11, 2014. Accessed October 21, 2019. http://jetpackman.com/
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Bell Rocket Belt photograph and correspondence
Collection — Folder 1
Identifier: 2019-00-00-104
Contents of the Collection
This small collection consists of two items: a black-and-white photograph and a printed copy of e-mail correspondence related to the photograph. The 4x5" photograph depicts Bell test pilot Robert Courter wearing the Bell Rocket Belt with a child's doll on the back of it during a tethered test flight inside a hangar, circa late December 1964. It is stamped on the back: "Bell Aerosystems Company." The e-mail, dated October 2019, provides context for the image provided by William P. Suitor,...
Dates:
1964 December; 2019 October
Found in:
The Museum of Flight Archives
Contact us with a research request
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