Be sure to join us for a very exciting day on August 19, 2016 at the Wright Brothers National Park – We will be celebrating National Aviation Day, Orville Wright’s 145th Birthday, and the Centennial year of the National Park Service. Admission to the park will be free. Activities include static display of military and civilian aircraft, educational exhibits by NASA, NOAA, NC DOT Aviation, Outer Banks Visitors Center, youth interactive activities, special presentations in the Visitors Center Flight Room about the Wright Brothers, the United States Coast Guard, and the National Park Service’s 100 years of service to our nation and their aviation story. Also, you will enjoy a FLYOVER of military and civilian aircraft. And, special surprise guests will be on hand to visit with you! Don’t miss it. Hours 9:00 am-5:00 pm.
News & Events
Aviatrix Mary Feik – Dies at home in Maryland
It is with a sad heart that we report to you that our most beloved Aviatrix Mary Feik, 92, passed away late last night. Mary was at her home in Annapolis, Maryland with her daughter Robin Vest at her side as she passed. Mary Feik was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
Mary Feik was known throughout the United States and around the world for her many extraordinary and extensive achievements and contributions to the field of aeronautics as an engineer, pilot, mechanic, educator and leader. She held many distinguished positions, awards and honors including the rank of Colonel in the United States Air Force Auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol. Mary Feik was the 2014 inductee into the First Flight Society’s Paul Garber Shrine at Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, NC.
Jerrie Mock
Inducted in 2015
First woman to complete a solo flight around the world
1925-2014
Jerrie Mock, the first woman to complete a solo flight around the world, will be the 2015 inductee in the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine. The induction is part of ceremonies to be held on December 17th at Wright Brothers National Memorial. In 1964, at age 38, and the mother of three, Ms. Mock flew a single engine Cessna 180 christened the “Spirit of Columbus”, nicknamed “Charlie”, a total of 23,000 miles in 29 days, to become another “first” in the world of aviation.
Geraldine “Jerrie” Fredritz Mock was born on November 22, 1925 in Newark, Ohio. Her interest in flying started at the early age of seven when she had her first airplane ride, and declared she was going to be a pilot. She was eleven when Amelia Earhart launched her around the world flight, and every day after school, Mock tuned in the radio for reports on her idol’s progress, then the news of efforts to find her.
Ms. Mock studied aeronautical engineering at Ohio State University before getting married in 1945. Her husband was a licensed pilot, and she got her license in 1958. The couple had great experiences flying to Canada and other places, hearing radio conversations of pilots who were crossing the Atlantic, Ms. Mock decided “why not fly around the world!”
The couple spent two years planning; together they researched routes, maps, visited embassies arranging clearances and use of airports. She plotted her course with maps and a globe at her dining room table. An Air Force friend helped her chart her course. Finally on March 19, 1964, this Ohio housewife took off from the airport in Port Columbus, Ohio and began her dream trip. When she returned to her home airport on April 17, 1964, she had accomplished her goal of being the first woman to fly solo around the world, which was a dream that her idol Amelia Earhart died trying.
The trip was not without incidents. She extinguished a potential on-board fire, had severe icing, flew with long range radio dead, mistakenly landed at a secret military installation, experienced defective brakes and malfunctioning engine, but most of all she overcame the public’s doubt that a 5-foot tall “flying housewife” could be the first woman to accomplish such a feat. She later remarked that she didn’t consider her flight remarkable, “just lots of fun”.
In the “Spirit of Columbus” Mock set seven records. She was the first woman to fly solo around the world, the first woman to fly across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the first woman to do so in a single engine plane, the first woman to fly the Atlantic from the United States to Africa, and the first woman to fly the Pacific west to east. She set the female speed record for around-the-world, and established the speed record in a Type C1-c aircraft. She set more speed records later in a Cessna P106. The Spirit of Columbus was donated to the National Air and Space Museum where it remains.
On May 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson presented her with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Exceptional Service Decloration, and the Federation Aeronautique International awarded her its Louis Bleriot silver medal, making her the first American and first woman so honored.
In 1970 Mock published the story of her round the world flight in the book “Three-Eight Charlie”. She later retired, and after living in several places, moved to Quincy, Florida where she resided until her death on September 30, 2014 at age 89.
GERALDINE “JERRIE” MOCK, aviator extraordinaire.
Mary S. Feik
Inducted in 2014
First woman aviation engineer
1924-2016
December 17, 2014 – A beautiful day at Wright Brothers National Memorial as Mary S. Feik was honored and her portrait was added to the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine at Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Mary is the first woman aviation engineer. But Mary did not stop there. During WWII, Mary became an expert on many military aircraft and is credited with becoming the first woman engineer in research and development in the Air Technical Service Command’s Engineering Division at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. She flew more than 6,000 hours as pilot in fighter, attack, bomber, cargo and training aircraft. She qualified as a B-29 Flight Engineer and was an engineering analyst in test aircraft for flight and maintenance requirements.
She participated in engineering “mock-up” evaluations for new aircraft prop set for production at the various aircraft manufacturing plants to determine flight and maintenance training requirements. Mary has authored pilot training and maintenance manuals for many of the military aircraft.
Mary retired from the National Air and Space Museum’s (NASM) Paul E. Garber Restoration Facility as a Restoration Specialist. She restores and teaches the restoration of antique and classic aircraft and has participated in the construction of reproduction WWI aircraft. At the Garber Facility she was a member of the restoration teams that restored NASM’s 1910 Wiseman-Cook
aircraft; the WWI Spad XIII fighter; and the 1930 Northrop “Alpha” mail plane.
Mary is a Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol where cadets can earn the “Mar Feik Achievement Award” that Mary signs personally for each cadet. Over 10,000 cadets have received this award.
In addition to the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine, Mary has received numerous awards, including being the first woman to receive the Federal Aviation Administration’s Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award in recognition of her many outstanding contributions to aviation safety. And Mary was inducted into the Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame, and the Katharine Wright Memorial Trophy that is given to a woman who has contributed to the success of others, or made a personal contribution to the advancement of the art, sport and science of aviation and space flight over an extended period of time.
Mary was active in the Civil Air Patrol, traveling over 30,000 miles per year to various activities and events. She passed away in 2016.
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William Edward Boeing
Inducted 2013
Founder of the Boeing Airplane Company
1881-1956
Years after attending his first air show in 1910, he became fascinated with aviation. After his first airplane ride, he purchased a Martin hydroplane, took flying lessons, became a pilot, and became obsessed with the notion that he could build a better plane than those currently in the air.
Boeing enlisted his engineering friend, George Conrad Westervelt, to design and build the B&W, a twin-float seaplane. He was so encouraged that he decided to begin his own plane-building business, Pacific Aero Products Company, a small airplane manufacturing company that became the Boeing Airplane Company a year later in 1916.
In 1917, just before America’s entry into World War I, Boeing knew the Navy needed planes. He delivered a Model C seaplane to Navy officials in Florida to test, and his business was firmly secured when the Navy sent his company an order for 50 of the planes. Expanding first in production of military aircraft during the war and then in contracts for scheduled mail delivery and regular commercial passenger service, the Boeing empire eventually included all aspects of aviation, from technological development and aircraft production to international airline transportation systems.
In 1934 new anti-trust laws forbid air mail carriers and aircraft manufacturers to be part of the same company. Boeing’s air mail contracts were cancelled, and he was forced to split his business into several different companies. Later that year, he sold all of his stock in the company he had founded. It had been an eventful and productive 18 years in the aviation industry.
Boeing was awarded the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for notable achievements in aeronautics, only the sixth man to be so honored. Orville Wright had received the first such award.
He never lost his enthusiasm for planes. After selling the stock in his company he never actively participated in its operation except to volunteer his time as a consultant during World War II. By the time he passed away in 1956, his company had grown into a major aircraft manufacturer about to enter the jet age.
Charles Frank Bolden, Jr.
Inducted in 2012
Four-time astronaut and current Administrator, NASA
1946 –
Born in Columbia, SC, retired Major General Charles F. Bolden, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps and current Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical science from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps and completed flight training as a Naval Aviator in 1970. He flew more than 100 combat missions in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1972-1973. He was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1980.
His 34-year career in the Marine Corps included 14 years as a member of NASA’s Astronaut Office. He traveled to orbit four times aboard the space shuttle between 1986 and 1994. During his first mission on board the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1986, he participated in deployment of the SATCOM KU satellite and conducted experiments in astrophysics and materials processing. On his second mission in 1990, as pilot of the Space Shuttle Discovery, he and his crew successfully deployed the Hubble Space Telescope and conducted extensive scientific experimentation. On his third mission, he commanded the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the first Space Laboratory. During this 9-day mission the crew operated the ATLAS-1, a system composed of 12 experiments which succeeded in making a vast amount of detailed measurements of the Earth’s atmospheric chemical and physical properties.
Immediately following the third mission, Bolden was appointed Assistant Deputy Administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which he held until assigned as commander of STS-60, the 1994 flight of a six member crew on the Space Shuttle Discovery. This landmark 8-day mission was the first joint US/Russian Space Shuttle mission, involving the participation of a Russian Cosmonaut as a mission specialist, a series of joint science activities, and carrying the Space Habitation Module-2 and Wake Shield Facility-01 into space. Bolden logged more than 680 hours in space.
In 1995, after serving as the Deputy Commandant of the U.S. Naval Academy, Bolden served as the Assistant Wing Commander, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Miramar, CA. In July 1997 he was assigned as the Deputy Commanding General, 1 MEF, Marine Forces, Pacific. From February to June 1998¸ he served as Commanding General, I MEF (FWD) in support of Operation Desert Thunder in Kuwait. In July 1998 he was promoted to Major General and became the Deputy Commander, U.S. Forces, Japan. In August 2000, he became the Commanding General 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, and retired in 2003.
Bolden began his duties as the twelfth Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on July 17, 2009, leading the NASA team and managing its resources to advance the agency’s missions and goals.
David Sinton Ingalls
Inducted in 2011
First Ace in U.S. Navy History
1899 – 1985
DAVID SINTON INGALLS was the only United States Navy Flying Ace in World War I, and thus, he was the first ace in U.S. Navy history.
Born to a life of privilege in Cleveland, Ohio, at 17 years of age Ingalls was a pre-med student at Yale where he enjoyed tinkering with aircraft, and enlisted as a member of the First Yale Unit, a group of aviation pioneers. As such, he became a member of the US Naval Reserve Flying Corps and obtained his pilot license.
On March 17, 1917, Ingalls enlisted into Naval Aviation and was called to active duty in April of that year. After aviation training, Ingalls was sent to Europe where he was attached to British squadrons throughout the war. Flying Sopwith Camels in attacks on the Germans, Ingalls scored six victories to become the Navy’s first ace. He received the Distinguished Service Metal, the British Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Legion of Honor.
After the war he received a degree in law from Harvard in 1923, began the practice of law, was elected to the Ohio Legislature in 1926, and in March 1929, President Herbert Hoover appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in charge of aviation. He returned to his law practice; however, serving as a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve he was recalled to help develop the Naval Air Station at Honolulu in World War II. He became Chief of Staff for Forward Area Air Center Command, then Commander of Pearl Harbor Naval Air Station, retiring with the rank of Rear Admiral.
David Ingalls later became Vice President of Pan Am World Airways, president and publisher of the Cincinnati Times-Star, Vice Chairman of Taft Broadcasting Company and was active in a wide variety of civic, sports and non-profit organizations. In 1983 he was inducted in the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
David S. Ingalls was married, had five children, and died on April 26, 1985.
Betty Skelton Frankman Erde
Inducted in 2010
First Lady of Aerobatics; Aviation and Automotive Pioneer
1926 – 2011
Betty June Skelton, the only child of David and Myrtle Skelton, was born in Pensacola, Florida on June 28, 1926. An independent child, she played with model airplanes instead of dolls. Later she devoted her playtime to sitting on the back steps of her home watching Navy cadets from the nearby Naval Air Station flying overhead executing maneuvers in bi-planes. Finally, at the age of nine, she convinced her parents she wanted to become a Navy flyer.
Betty’s father, a railroad conductor, shared her interest in flying, and the three Skeltons began visiting the airport every spare moment. A young Navy Ensign began teaching the entire family to fly. Betty was the last to solo. She was twelve years old..
During World War II the Skelton family was active in the Civil Air Patrol. The young pilot legally soloed on her sixteenth birthday. One day after high school graduation, she joined Eastern Air Lines where she worked the graveyard shift, leaving daylight hours for building up her flight hours. At eighteen she became a commercial flight instructor teaching war veterans how to fly on the GI Bill of Rights. Sea-plane and multi-engine ratings followed, plus a new career in aerobatic flying and establishing world records.
Betty became a champion professional aerobatic aviatrix headlining major air shows in the forties and fifties, including the famous Cleveland Air Races and Miami Air Maneuvers. First she flew a 1929 Great Lakes biplane, then the second Pitts Special ever constructed. Her expertise resulted in the Pitts airplane becoming internationally famous. The tiny aircraft went with her on board the original Queen Mary in 1949 to represent the United States in the International Air Pageant in London, England and the RAF Air Show in Belfast, Ireland. During this era in aviation history, women pilots were not accepted by airlines or the military services. Betty was too young for the WASPS, the civilian women ferry pilots during the war.
The aviatrix also participated in all major air shows in the nation for years, did test pilot work, and flew thousands of miles each year to nearly every state in the union. She flew special experimental demonstrations for Beechcraft Aviation Company in their T-34 Mentor to the Air Force. She became Director of Personnel at Garner Aviation Corporation located at Bartow Air Base in Florida where Air Force cadets were trained. After becoming the first and only woman to cut ribbons flying upside down ten feet above the ground, Betty had explored almost all of the challenging opportunities available to a woman at that time in the world of aviation.
Bill France, NASCAR Found and flier, personally invited her to participate in his 1954 Speedweek events on the sands of Daytona Beach. Always interested in new challenges, she quickly accepted. With no previous experience driving an automobile in competitive events, she “put the pedal to the medal” driving a Dodge sedan there, and established a new class record.
Betty’s beach record led her to joining the Dodge Division of Chrysler Corporation where she became the first woman test driver in the auto industry. Her love for the Corvette caused her to later switch to Chevrolet in Detroit, Michigan and to become a member of Chevy’s advertising agency. She became an official spokesperson for Chevrolet in television commercials and network appearances. She was Chevy’s first lady technical narrator in major auto shows. She set records across the South American Andes mountain ranges and from New York to Los Angeles. She became the fastest woman on earth driving a jet car on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to over 315 miles an hour.
Aviation Records:
- International Feminine Aerobatic Champion – 1948, 1949, 1950. All-American Air Maneuvers, Miami, Florida. First woman to win three times.
- World Light Plane Altitude Record – Tampa, Florida. Piper Cub – 20,050’ – 1951
- World Light Plane Altitude Record – Miami, Florida. Piper Cub – 25,763’ – 1949
- World Speed Record for Engine Aircraft – Tampa, Florida. P-51 racing plane over 3 kilometer course to 421.6 MPH – 1949 (Unofficial due to engine fire.)
- Air Racing Wins – Various light planes during forties and fifties.
Automotive Records:
- World Land Speed Record for Women – (For 4th time) – Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah – Driving Art Arfons jet “Green Monster Cyclops” to top speed of 315.72 MPH
- Durability Record – Tijuana, Mexico to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico – full length Baja Peninsula – Chevrolet truck – June 1962
- Transcontinental South America Automobile Record – Buenos Aires, Argentina to Valparaiso, Chile-round trip non-stop, twice across the Andes Mountains – 41 hours, 14 minutes; Chevrolet Wagon, January 14, 1958
- Transcontinental United States Automobile Record – New York to Los Angeles, 2,913 miles – 56 hours, 58 minutes – Chevrolet Sedan – October 22, 1956 (Called “Operation Cannonball” – first to break Cannonball Baker’s record.)
Frank Purdy Lahm
Inducted in 2009
One of first trainees for military aircraft
November 11, 1877 – July 7, 1963
Frank Lahm spent two years at Michigan Military Academy preparing for West Point, where he entered in June 1897 and subsequently served in France. Upon his return to the United States in 1903, Lieutenant Lahm was stationed at West Point as an instructor in French. The son of a balloonist, he trained at West Point, served in the cavalry, and transferred to the signal corps in 1907. A pioneer aviator, he trained with Wilbur Wright, and in 1909 became one of the army’s first two certified pilots.
Lahm’s father had joined the Aero Club of France and owned the balloon the “Katherine Hamilton,” named in honor of his daughter. In the summer of 1905 young Lahm completed the requirements of six ascensions, including one at night and one alone, to win his Federation Aeronautique Internationale license as a balloon pilot. In July of the same summer Lahm became a first lieutenant. In 1906 young Lahm won the International Balloon Race, flying across the Channel from Paris, France to Yorkshire, England. It was in the home’s garden that Lahm’s father introduced Frank to Wilbur and Orville Wright.
After practice hops, Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Lahm as a passenger, made the first official test flight on July 27, 1909. He and Lahm established a world’s record for a two-man flight – one hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds. In October 1909 Wilbur Wright trained Lieutenants Lahm and Frederic E. Humphreys. With little more than three hours apiece flying time, Lahm and Humphreys were pronounced pilots on Oct 26. When Lahm and Humphreys crashed November 5, the Army lost its entire air force, one plane.
Frank Lahm was a president of the First Flight Society. The airport in Mansfield, OH is named for him.