Ramon, Ilan

Father - Eliezer Wolferman (native of Germany, born in Berlin) - engineer. He died on August 21, 2006 at the 83rd year of his life. He was buried in the cemetery of the village of Omer near Beersheba , where he lived.

Mother - Tonya Wolferman (before marriage - Kreple, a native of Poland). Died March 29, 2003 after a long illness ( Alzheimer's syndrome ).

Ilan Ramon was born into a family of former prisoners of Auschwitz Eliezer and Tony Wolferman ^[1] on June 20, 1954 in the city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Before being drafted into the army in 1972 he bore the name of his parents. Then, like many Israeli military pilots (however, this is often the case for the Israelis in general) ^{[1] [2]} , changed it to Hebrew . He took the surname by the name of the Ramon crater in the Negev desert ^[3] , and, possibly, as a partial anagram of the original surname Wolferman ^[1] .

Education

He graduated from high school in 1972 in the city of Be'er Sheva, had a first degree from Tel Aviv University in Electronics and Computer Engineering (1987).

Military career

In 1972, I. Ramon was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces and entered the Flight School. At the very beginning of the training course as a result of a broken arm, he lagged behind his peers by 2 cycles, but then caught up. In one of his training flights near the Tsukit training aircraft (the Israeli version of the SM-170 Fouga Magister jet ), the control system failed, and Ramon and his instructor were forced to leave the plane. The bailout ended successfully - Ilan received only a slight bruise in his leg, and a few days later returned to duty.

He graduated from the Air Force flight school with honors in 1974, receiving the qualification of a fighter pilot.

• During the Doomsday War (1973) he served in the electronic warfare unit.
• In 1974-1976, after completing a training course, Ramon flew an A-4 Skyhawk aircraft in the 102nd squadron Ha-namer ha-meofef (Flying Tiger).
• In 1976-1980, after retraining, he served as a pilot of the Mirage IIICJ fighter in the 140th Squadron Nesher ha-zahav (Golden Eagle).
• In 1980, the squadron, where I. Ramon served, became one of the first two in the Air Force to receive and master F-16 fighters. Ramon completed a retraining course for an F-16 aircraft at the base of the US Air Force Hill ( Utah ) as part of the 2nd group of Israeli pilots. After returning from the United States, he served in the 101st Squadron Ha-krav ha-rishona (First Fighter), then moved to the 110th Squadron Abirei ha-tsafon (Knights of the North).
• On June 7, 1981, Ramon piloted one of eight F-16A fighters that hit the Iraqi Ozirak nuclear reactor 17 kilometers west of Baghdad ( Operation Opera ). He played the role of the closure in the group (No. 8) and was the youngest pilot among the participants in the operation.
• In 1981-1983 he served as deputy commander of the 253rd squadron Negev, equipped with F-16 fighters.
• In 1982, he took part in the Lebanon war .
• In 1983, he resigned from the army, enrolling in Tel Aviv University . He graduated in 1987 with the 1st degree (bachelor). Participated in the development of the Lavi fighter.
• In 1988, I. Ramon returned to the Air Force and was appointed deputy commander of the 119th Atalef Squadron (Bat), equipped with F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers. As part of this squadron, he repeatedly performed super-high-altitude reconnaissance flights (at an altitude of 20-25 km) on an RF-4ES aircraft.
• In 1990, he completed a training course for squadron commanders. In 1990-1992 he served as commander of the 105th squadron "Akrav" ("Scorpio"), equipped with F-16 aircraft.
• In 1992-1994 he headed the Department of Airplanes at the Headquarters of the Israeli Air Force.
• In 1994 he received the rank of colonel and the post of head of the Directorate for the Development and Procurement of Combat Facilities at the Air Force Headquarters. He held this post until 1998, when he was sent to the United States to prepare for space flight.

I. Ramon had a flight time of more than 3,000 hours on an A-4 Skyhawk, Mirage IIICJ and F-4 Phantom II aircraft, and more than 1000 hours on F-16 airplanes of various modifications. Repeatedly made combat sorties. Twice accidentally left the plane.

Participation in space programs

In July 1998, he began training on a specialist payload (PS) program at the Space Center. L. Johnson. With the consent of NASA executives, Ramon took a flight training course (MS) as a trainee along with NASA candidate astronauts 17th. During preparation, the NASA administration, as an exception, allowed I. Ramon, as an experienced combat pilot, to fly from one NASA center to another on a T-38 Talon jet aircraft (which is usually not allowed to payload specialists) as the second the pilot.

STS-107

September 28, 2000 I. Ramon was assigned to the crew of the STS-107 mission as a payload specialist .

On January 16, 2003, he launched into space as part of the STS-107 mission.

Doom

Ilan Ramon died tragically on February 1, 2003, along with the entire crew of the Columbia shuttle when returning from space flight (mission STS-107) 16 minutes before the landing scheduled at Cape Canaveral . Buried in Nahalal moshavim in the Jezreel Valley .

Since 1986, Ilan Ramon was married to Ron, a teacher by profession, left four children: the sons of Asaf, Tal, Iftah and daughter Noah. The eldest son Asaf, who later became a military pilot and also dreamed of becoming an astronaut, died on September 13, 2009 in the crash of an F-16 fighter ^[4] . Ramona’s widow Rona Ramon died on December 17, 2018, at the age of 54 after a long illness (pancreatic cancer) ^[5] .

Ramon was fond of skiing , squash .

Ramon is marked with the sign of the Yom Kippur War (1973) and Operation Peace of Galilee (1982)

• Asteroid (51828) Ilanramon in the solar system .
• Ramon Crater on the far side of the moon .
• Mount Ramon in the Colombian Mountains on Mars .
• Ramon Hall at the Florida Institute of Technology .
• Control tower at Ben Gurion International Airport .
• An international airport in southern Israel (the airport will begin operating at full capacity in April 2019 ^[6] .).
• School named after Ilan and Asaf Ramon in the city of Rishon LeZion, Israel. http://www.rishonim.rlz.org.il/BRPortal/br/P100.jsp
• A street in a suburb of Toronto, Canada.

• List of dead astronauts

• Ramon Biography on ASTROnote
• Ramon's biography at jafi.org.il
• Ramon's biography on waronline.org
• Short biography on NASA website
• Official biography at NASA
• Photo of Ilan Ramon with Chabad Rabbi Zvi Konikov
• Ilan Ramon STS-107 Crew Memorial
• A collection of articles about Ilan Ramon
• Ilan Ramon Memorial pages in the Israel Science and Technology Directory
• Spacefacts biography of Ilan Ramon
• Excerpts from Ilan Ramon's diary
• Ramon, Ilan (English) on Find a Grave
• Ilan Ramon - Obituary and public tribute