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Obituaries
Lester David
(11/12/1916 - 06/20/2004)
Born: Zagreb, Austro-Hungarian Empire, November 12, 1916
Died: June 22, 2004, Lincoln, Nebraska
EAA #14356. Member from January 1963 till his death June 2004.
He was a member of Garden State Chapter 73, Bloomfield, New Jersey, serving as chapter president in 1979. Joined Chapter 569, Lincoln, Nebraska when he moved to Nebraska in 1984.
His first homebuilt project was a gyrocopter which he completed and sold to the US Navy in 1962.
His second homebuilt was a Smith Mini Biplane (N391Y) which he completed and flew in August 1965. This plane won “Grand Champion Homebuilt” the EAA East Coast Fly-In, July 1966 and was featured as the cover story in “Air Progress” in December 1972.
His third homebuilt was a Mustang II (N4765) which he completed in 1972 after 4 years in the making. It appeared as part of an article on metal homebuilts in “Air Progress” in August 1978. In October 1978 he was invited to display this aircraft at the Newark International Airport 50th Anniversary weekend along with many military and commercial aircraft.
His fourth homebuilt was a Steen Skybolt which he started building in 1981 in Wallington, New Jersey. This aircraft he sold to a friend, but sold it to a friend before it was completed.
In August 1986 at the age of 80 he started building his last airplane, an Isaacs Fury II. He worked diligently on this airplane and completed over 80 percent of it by the time he died at age 87.
Lester started flying in 1936 when as a very young man he joined the Hungarian Air Force. He flew 35 different airplanes in his lifetime including a Fokker CVS, Fiseler Stork and Messerschmidt 109e. He was stationed in Pecs, became a test pilot for the Hungarian Air Force and a factory pilot for the Messerschmidt 262 jet. During WWII he was shot down by an American P-51, yet he was especially proud of the P-51 and P-47 pilots who were his friends in the EAA. He lived a long, healthy life and retained his love of flying until the end came at age 87.
Lester and his wife of 59 years, Judy, and their daughter Judi, came to the United States in 1951 and settled in New Jersey where they became American citizens. He and his wife Judy moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1984 to be close to their daughter, grandchildren, and most recently, great grandchildren. This move gave Lester the opportunity to fly his Mustang II from New Jersey to Nebraska by following Interstate 80 without the aid of radio navigation, demonstrating to us all how real pilots fly.
