Donald ‘Deke’ Slayton was among NASA’s inaugural group of astronauts – the renowned “Mercury Seven” who achieved historic milestones repeatedly in the early 1960s. Deke himself participated in the momentous Apollo-Soyuz joint mission in 1975.
Deke possessed an enduring passion for aviation. He served in combat during World War II and, after concluding his tenure as an astronaut, acquired a Williams W-17 Stinger racing aircraft capable of 260 mph. However, he was regrettably compelled to cease flying his cherished Stinger following a diagnosis of an untreatable brain tumour. Yet, according to Jon B Allen, more widely recognized as podcaster Mr Ballen, there was one final flight. Jon elaborates in a recent video on how the NASA luminary became the subject of an enduring enigma.
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Deke’s NASA career had been hindered by health issues, and in his mid-sixties, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. At the age of 69, the tumour he believed he had overcome returned with considerable force: “And the most distressing aspect of his declining health,” Jon remarks, “was that he had been unable to pilot an aircraft for months.”
Deke was grounded by his malady. The ramifications of the tumour had resulted in persistent exhaustion, difficulties with speech, and notable impairments in his equilibrium.
However, Jon asserts that Deke was determined, by whatever means necessary, to soar through the sky once more. His agile Stinger was located an 18-hour drive away in Sparta, Wisconsin, but, Jon recounts, “As Deke’s life was drawing to a close, his sole desire was to simply fly again.”
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As Deke succumbed to sleep one evening in June 1993, he made a firm resolution – one way or another – to pilot an aircraft for the final time.
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Early the subsequent morning, authorities at John Wayne Airport in Southern California, approximately 1,500 miles from Deke’s residence in League City, began receiving numerous reports of aircraft disturbance.
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Jon explains: “As soon as the manager arrived at his office, his desk phone rang. Upon answering, the caller identified themselves as a local resident lodging a complaint. A plane had recently flown low over her property, generating considerable noise.”
That complaint was swiftly followed by another telephone call, and then another, all detailing a sleek-looking red aircraft engaged in low-altitude aerial maneuvers above residential areas.
John states: “Some of the callers even mentioned that at certain junctures, the plane had flown so low that they could discern its identification number, which they had noted down for reporting purposes. Consequently, they informed the manager that the aircraft’s registration was N21X.”
That registration number was linked to a crimson Williams Stinger owned by the esteemed astronaut Deke Slayton.
By the time officials had identified the aircraft, it appeared to have departed the vicinity. Therefore, the manager of John Wayne Airport decided to simply dispatch a letter to Deke, admonishing him for contravening regulations, and conclude the matter.
It wasn’t until two weeks later that Deke’s wife, Bobbie, opened a letter from John Wayne Airport: “She was utterly perplexed because what this airport was attributing to Deke was verifiably impossible.”
Deke had bequeathed his cherished aircraft to a museum, and to showcase it optimally, museum personnel had removed its engine and suspended the airframe from the ceiling.
Furthermore, there was an additional, far more critical reason why Deke Slayton could not have been buzzing homes in Southern California that morning, Jon posits: “A full five hours preceding that documented flight, Deke had passed away peacefully in his sleep. No one has ever managed to account for how Dee’s red Stinger aircraft materialized in the skies over California that particular morning.”