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That is not how it got its name. hill air force base is actually named after a guy named hill. peter hill, a u.s. army test pilot who died in really dramatic circumstances while flying test flights in a new plane that the army was considering buying at the time. in the 1930s, the army air corps wanted a big, new bomber to add to its fleet. and boeing designed one to try to get that contract. boeing was almost kaput as a company at that point. they basically bet the whole future of their company on trying to win this army air corps contract. and what they built was a whole new approach. instead...

Its wing span was more than a hundred feet wide. it could fly faster than previous bombers, it could fly further. it could hold tons more bombs than the army had been able to put in a plane like this before. but on october 30th, that boeing test model number 299, the 299 had an ace test pilot named ployer peter hill at the controls. it was being evaluated by the army to see if they were going to invest in this huge, amazing new plane that could do so much more than any other bomber had before. and in that test, the plane crashed. took off, it got its nose up way too high. basically went straig...

To get that contract. boeing was almost kaput as a company at that point. they basically bet the whole future of their company on trying to win this army air corps contract. and what they built was a whole new approach. instead of two engines, it had four. it was huge. its wing spand was more than a hundred feet wide. it could fly faster than previous bombers, it could fly further. it could hold tons more bombs than the army had been able to put in a plane like this before. but on october 30th, that boeing test model number 299, the 299 had an ace test pilot named ployer peter hill at the cont...

If army awarded the initial contract for their new bomber to a competing aircraft to a different company. turned out there was nothing wrong with the plane. it was human error. a thing was locked at take off that was unlocked. it was enough to crash the model 299. a doctor and writer wrote about this for the new yorker magazine a few years ago. because that diagnosis of that plane crash, that diagnosis that this incredibly good, incredibly experienced, incredibly expert pilot was responsible for that crash. it wasn't the plane's fault. it was the pilot's fault. that diagnosis led to a really i...