Someone You Should Know: Joe Cook, 91, Indoor Skydiver
(CBS) -- He's a World War II veteran and a pilot who has never lost his love for flying. Now he's experiencing it in a new way.
Joe Cook is someone you should know, CBS 2's Harry Porterfield reports.
Seventy-one years ago, he was shot out of the sky over Germany and became a prisoner of war as the co-pilot of an American bomber that lost a wing. Cook never lost his lust for flying, though.
At 91, Cook has joined the brave new world indoor skydiving, at iFLY Chicago in Naperville.
"I know I can do it," he says.
Four wind machines produce a column of air that moves at a speed of between 80 and 175 mph.
"Everybody at any age can fly. The oldest person ever to be in a wind tunnel was 103 years old," instructor Spencer Lavunski says. "Joe has been amazing flyer from the get-go."
Cook, a Downers Grove resident, did well, Porterfield reports. All it took, the veteran says, was a "certain perseverance."