Then I happened on the correct aisle in the exhibit hall of the National Business Aviation Association convention in New Orleans, where Hoover was signing autographs. At last I would learn the secret of perfect landings. Even if you make a perfect touchdown on a dry runway, the tires will skid for a brief moment before the wheels spin up, and that causes a jolt no matter how skilled the pilot. However, the tires slide less before spinning up on a wet runway, reducing the jolt. Another secret, he said, is to have short struts on the aircraft.
Long ones transmit more of the landing jolt.
That is the sort of detail you would expect from a perfectionist, details that had never occurred to me. Maybe I wasn't ready for perfect landings after all. In fact, until Hoover performed such a demonstration, the U.S. Air Force once balked at buying the North American F-100 Super Sabre. The top brass pronounced that the nose came up too high in the landing attitude, providing inadequate visibility over the nose. So Hoover flew the entire length of the runway at Edwards Air Force Base with the landing gear just a foot above the surface.