Harry Andonian began his career during WWII with the Ferrying Division of the Air Transport Command, flying most of the Army Air Forces aircraft inventory, in 1944 and early 1945. He was involved in the China-Burma-Indian Theater from August 1945 through January 1946. Andonian then flew in the heroic Berlin Airlift from July until September 1948. A graduate of the Empire Test Pilot School, he was assigned to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB where he served as Chief of the Special Projects Operations Branch, U-2 Test until June 1966. He served as an F-4 squadron commander in Vietnam, accumulating nearly 300 combat flying hours. Andonian was later assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB, where he retired in 1971. As the Project Pilot, he conducted 340 flights on the U-2A/B/D for classified development testing, and was also Project Pilot on the U-2C conducting flight test evaluations. While at Edwards AFB, he participated in performance, stability and control tests of various aircraft including the C-133A, YAC-1 (C-7A), C-54G, KC-135A, B-47, B-52, B-58, C-135B, T-39-A, C-141, HC-130H, XH-51A and the CH-47. A Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Andonian has logged over 26,000 flying hours in over 200 types of aircraft.
