Robert Cardenas

Robert Leon Cardenas (March 10, 1920 – March 10, 2022) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force.

He was born in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.

When he was five, his family moved to San Diego.

He excelled in mathematics and physics in high school.

When Cardenas was a teenager, building models and learning about gliders at the Torrey Pines Gliderport first sparked his interest in airplanes.

Due to his excellent grades, San Diego State University invited him to enroll.

In 1939, while attending San Diego State, he decided to enlist as a private in the California National Guard.

In 1940, Cardenas became an aviation cadet.

He graduated, received his pilot wings and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps in July 1941.

In 1942, Lt. Cardenas was sent to Twentynine Palms, California, to help establish the Army Air Corps Glider School.

He was assigned to Wright Field, Ohio, and became a flight test officer.

Cardenas rose quickly in position, was promoted to operations officer and finally director of the Flight Test Unit, Experimental Engineering Laboratory at Wright Field.

In 1944, he was assigned to the 506th Bombardment Squadron, 44th Bombardment Group, also known as the Flying Eightballs, based at RAF Shipdham in Norfolk, England.

He flew his first mission on the B-24 Liberator "Southern Comfort" on January 24.

On September 27, 1944, Cardenas escaped into France with the help of Swiss civilians and the French resistance.

He was flown to Britain and then sent back to the United States to recover from his head injury.

In November 1944, he attended Central Instructors School for the B-24 at Smyrna Army Airfield, Tennessee.

After graduation, he became a test pilot and was then assigned to Wright Field, Ohio.

While at Wright Field, he attended Experimental Flight Test School and later became assistant chief of Bomber Section, and chief of Bomber Operations Section, Flight Test Division.

In 1945, he started piloting experimental aircraft.

He piloted a captured Luftwaffe jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262, and the Arado Ar 234 jet bomber.

Cardenas also piloted the XB-42 Mixmaster and XB-43 Jetmaster.

He was assigned chief test pilot for bomber aircraft and flew all prototypes of that class for the next four years.

In 1947, he became the Officer in Charge of Operations and was the command pilot for the B-29 Superfortress that launched Captain Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 supersonic experimental aircraft.

Then in 1948, Major Cardenas was the Officer in Charge of Flight Test Division at Muroc Air Force Base and was Chief Air Force Test Pilot of the Northrop YB-49 flying wing.

Cardenas later claimed that the YB-49 rotated backwards in stall, and that he warned Glen Edwards about it, who later died in a YB-49 crash.

On March 18, Captain Cardenas was flying as Command Pilot for the 44th Bomb Group on his 20th mission.

His airplane, the B-24 "Sack Artists" (serial number 42-100073), was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire.

His attack run was supposed to target the Manzell Air Armaments factory in Friedrichshafen, Württemberg, Germany.

However, the right wing was severely damaged by a shell and two engines were set on fire.

According to his report relayed to the War Department, his number 2 engine was "hit by flak [and] on fire," causing the loss of 3,000 ft. altitude.

Despite this damage he "Rejoined formation for [a] second [bomb] run."

After this pass his "[numbers] 2 and 4 [engines were] on fire," and "[number] 3 [was] vibrating badly" in addition to "gas leaks," damage to bomb bays, wings, and electrical systems, and "hydraulics inoperative."

Several members of the crew were also wounded, including Cardenas, who received a head injury when a piece of flak pierced his helmet.

Since the plane was severely damaged and losing stability, 1st Lieutenant Raymond J. Lacombe decided to pilot the plane to Switzerland.

Cardenas' crew all parachuted safely.

The bomber then exploded at a low altitude and shore off the tops of several trees.

Capt. Cardenas landed on the German side of Lake Constance.

He swam across the lake to the Swiss side in order to evade capture.

He was first interned at a camp for American officers at Adelboden, and was later assigned to teach Swiss officers how to fly interned American bombers at Dübendorf Airfield near Zurich.