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2 08, 2014

Francis and Gertrude Rogallo

Inducted in 1995

Developed The First Successful Flexible Wing

Francis Rogallo
1912 – 2009

Gertrude Rogallo
1914 – 2008

Francis Rogallo began his career as an engineer with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1936. While working at the NACA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, in the late 1940s, he envisioned the possibility of a simpler, more practical, and less expensive aircraft for sport and recreation. Since the research center did not wish to undertake such a project, Rogallo decided to pursue the idea on his own in his spare time.

Rogallo conceived the thought of making an aircraft wing as a parachute-like flexible structure that would open and maintain its shape by wind pressure. With his wife Gertrude’s help, he made small models that were tested in a wind tunnel at their home. After extensive experimentation, he designed the first Rogallo wing, for which Gertrude sewed the prototype from material scavenged from the […]

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2 08, 2014

Eugene B. Ely

Inducted in 1994

First Aviator To Take Off From A Ship, 1910, And First Aviator To Land On A Ship, 1911

1886 – 1911

Eugene Burton Ely, a civilian pilot from Iowa, became the first man to take off from the deck of a ship. He flew a Curtiss Model D bi-plane from a platform constructed on the bow of the cruiser USS Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on November 14, 1910.

Rain and fog threatened to delay the flight, but Ely pressed on. Witnesses saw the daring aviator coast down the platform, drop to the bay, hit the water with a splash, rise again, and continue onward to a safe landing two and one-half miles away on Willoughby Spit.

Two months later, on January 18, 1911, Ely successfully executed the first airplane landing on a ship, again in a Curtiss airplane. He departed Tanforan Field near San Francisco wearing a padded football helmet and […]

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2 08, 2014

President George Herbert Walker Bush

Inducted in 1994

First Military Flyer To Become President Of The United States, 1988

1924 – 2018

George Bush was the first rated military combat pilot to be elected President of the United States. Bush enlisted in the United States Navy on June 12, 1942, his 18th birthday. He became the youngest pilot in the Navy when he received his wings and a commission in June 1943.

While on active duty during World War II, Bush flew torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto in the pacific campaign. His Grumman TBF “Avenger” torpedo plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and shot down in September 1944 over the Bonin Island of Chichi Jima, 600 miles south of Japan. Bush was sole survivor of the three-man crew and was rescued by the Navy submarine USS Finback. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross plus three Air Medals for his courageous service.

Bush was elected to […]

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2 08, 2014

Rear Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

Inducted in 1993

The First American In Space, 1961
The Fifth Man To Walk On The Moon, 1971

1923 – 1998

Naval aviator Alan Shepard lifted off from Pad 5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 5, 1961, at 9:34 a.m. to become the first American in space. The small Mercury capsule he named “Freedom 7” was propelled into space by a slim but powerful Redstone missile. The suborbital flight reached an altitude of 116.5 miles (space begins at 100 miles altitude or 500,000 feet) at a maximum speed of 5,180 miles per hour. In 15 minutes and 22 seconds, the flight covered a distance of 302 miles downrange.

Born in East Derry, New Hampshire, on November 18, 1923, Shepard earned a bachelor’s degree at the United States Naval Academy in 1944. He served aboard a naval destroyer prior to acceptance for flight training, and by 1950 was testing jets on aircraft carriers. In 1959 […]

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2 08, 2014

Robert M Stanley and Lawrence C Craigie

Inducted in 1992

First Americans to Pilot a Jet Aircraft, 1942

Robert M. Stanley
1912 – 1977

Lieutenant General Lawrence C. Craigie
1902 – 1994

America entered the jet age on October 2, 1942, when Robert Stanley, a civilian test pilot for Bell Aircraft, flew the top secret Bell XP-59A Airacomet at Muroc Dry Lake, California.

Lieutenant General Lawrence Craigie, United States Army Air Corps, later piloted the Airacomet, becoming the first American military officer to fly a jet.

Stanley’s and Craigie’s flights were significant achievements in the development of jet aircraft and laid the foundation for advancements in jet aviation.

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2 08, 2014

Sir Frank J. Whittle

Inducted in 1991

Pioneer Developer Of Turbo-jet Aircraft Engines

1907 – 1996

Sir Frank J. Whittle experimented with and constructed turbo-jet engines in pre-World War II England. In 1929 he patented a turbo-jet engine and in 1937 proved to skeptical British Air Ministry officials that a jet powered aircraft was feasible.

In 1941, a Gloster E28/39 research aircraft was fitted with a Whittle “W.1” engine that produced 800 pounds of thrust. The aircraft reached 466 miles per hour and climbed to 42,000 feet, exceeding all speed and altitude limitations of that period. The success of the Whittle “W.1” turbine engine propelled England into the jet age.

Whittle’s formal training was in mechanical engineering. During the war he rose to the rank of air commodore in the Royal Air Force and served as technical advisor to the Ministry of Supply. He retired from the RAF in 1948 and in the same year was knighted because of […]

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2 08, 2014

Hans-Joachim Von Ohain, Ph.D.

Inducted in 1991

Developed The Engine Powering The World’s First Jet Plane

1911 – 1998

In 1935, German-born Hans-Joachim Pabst Von Ohain patented a jet propulsion engine design similar in concept to that of Sir Frank J. Whittle but different in internal arrangement. Von Ohain continued to develop the design and on August 27, 1939, the Heinkel He-178 experimental aircraft, powered by his centrifugal-flow HeS-3b engine, made the world’s first turbo-jet powered flight. A subse-quent design powered the first opera-tional German jet fight-er, the Me-262A, in 1942.

As World War II progressed, Von Ohain abandoned the concept of the centrifugal compressor and began developing the axial flow compressor. His new jet engine powered the Messers-chmitt 262 fighter, which first saw combat in 1944.

Von Ohain moved to the United States in 1947 under contract with the Air Force to research advanced air breath-ing propulsion systems. He later became Chief Scientist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base […]

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2 08, 2014

Colonel Yuri A. Gagarin

Inducted in 1990

First Person In Space, 1961

1934 – 1968

Colonel Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, Soviet Air Force, became a Soviet hero as the first person to break the bonds of earth’s gravity and venture into the weightlessness of space when he orbited the earth on April 12, 1961. He described sights never before seen by man.

“I could clearly discern the outlines of continents, islands and rivers. The horizon presents a sight of unusual beauty. A delicate blue halo surrounds the earth, merging with the blackness of space in which the stars are bright and clear cut.”
Gagarin’s space voyage carried the human race beyond its planetary boundaries. Only eight years later, a person walked on the moon.

Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the city of Gzhatsk, Russia, into a collective farmer’s family. He graduated in 1957 from the Voroshilov Aviation Technical Academy and soon afterward became a military fighter pilot with […]

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2 08, 2014

Major General Albert F. Hegenberger

Inducted in 1989

Developer Of All-Blind Flight Control System

1895 – 1983

Major General Albert Francis Hegenberger’s pioneering work in instrument flying and navigational systems led to modern aviation equipment, enabling planes to fly anywhere in almost all weather conditions.

Hegenberger graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an aeronautical engineer and served as a flight instructor during World War I. Later, as Chief of the Instrument Branch, Air Service Engineering Division, at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio, he began researching flight and navigation instrument development.

In 1927, Lieutenants Hegenberger and Lester Maitland were the first to fly 2,400 miles from California to Hawaii, the longest open sea flight to date, in the “Bird of Paradise,” a Fokker C-2 Tri-Motor. They received the Mackey Trophy and the Distinguished Flying Cross from President Coolidge for this achievement.

Captain Hegenberger went on to develop a blind instrument landing system. In 1932 he made the world’s first solo […]

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2 08, 2014

Bessie Coleman

Inducted in 1989

First Black Woman Licensed Pilot

1893-1926

Bessie Coleman was born into a poor Texas family, and although she was a bright student, poverty kept her from attending college. She moved to Chicago where she saw her first air show. The excitement and thrills created by the barnstorming stunt pilots inspired her to learn to fly.

Coleman refused to give in to the racial and gender prejudices of her day. Rejected by American flight schools, she went to France, learned to fly in Nieuport biplanes, and earned the first International Pilot’s License issued to a black woman.

Returning to America in 1921, Coleman yearned to open a flight school for black pilots. She believed “the air is the only place free from prejudices.” She turned her accomplishments into celebrity, appearing on newsreels, performing at air shows, and lecturing to encourage other blacks to pursue aviation careers.

By 1926, Coleman had raised almost enough money […]

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