Friday, July 11, 2008

The car that turned all the pretty girls' heads was out of reach for Sidney Clark Jr. when he was a senior in high school.

The 1970 Chevelle SS was the muscle car, but Clark had another expensive dream. He wanted to fly, and, as he says, "it was hard enough just to swing the flying lessons."

Since the age of 16, Clark had been spending his money on flying lessons. At that time, it was acceptable for black men to get a private pilot's license, but it was still rare to see a black commercial pilot. The first black pilot for a major commercial airline was hired in the 1960s.

Several times a week, Clark, now 55, would pedal his bike out to the airstrip near his New Jersey home for flying lessons, and before he went to college, he had earned his license. He might not have had an SS, but he had his wings, and at the time that was enough for him.

After college, Clark had a chance to become a commercial pilot. He studied with an instructor in Florida and went on to get a job with US Airways. As chief pilot for US Airways at Reagan National Airport, he flies routes between Philadelphia and Europe and oversees 230 other pilots based in Washington.

And more than 30 years after it first came out, he was able to buy that SS. Clark says that buying the car later in life has made him appreciate it even more.

"You kind of review your whole life and the choices you made," he says. "Does it have the same excitement that it would have if I hadn't gone flying?"

Turns out it does. Clark says that he enjoys rolling down the windows and turning off the radio so he can listen to the roar of the engine while he drives. The car, he says, sounds like it is "ready to pounce."

"At 55, it is not about speed -- it is about knowing that the power is there," he says.

As for the girls? Clark laughs.

"It turns even more heads now than it did back then."