- Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is a former American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and naval aviator. He was the first human being to set foot on an extraterrestrial world (The Moon). His first spaceflight was "Gemini 8" in 1966, for which he was the command pilot. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott.
- Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (4 February 1902 - 26 August 1974), known as "Lucky Lindy" and "The Lone Eagle," was an American pilot famous for the first solo, non-stop flight across the Atlantic, from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, NY to Paris in 1927 in the "Spirit of St. Louis." In the ensuing deluge of notoriety, Lindbergh became the world's best-known aviator. Charles Lindbergh is a recipient of the Medal of Honor. In the years prior to World War II, …
- Chuck Yeager
Retired Air Force Brigadier General Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager gained fame as the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. This historic flight in the rocket powered Bell X-1 aircraft took place on October 14th 1947, at Muroc (now Edwards Air Force Base), California. Muroc field was named after the town of Muroc formed by the Corum (Muroc spelled backwords) brothers in the early 20th century. General Yeager was born Feb. 13, 1923, in Myra, West Virginia.
- Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and women's rights advocate. Earhart was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, which she was awarded as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, a women's pilots' organization.
- Patty Wagstaff
Patty Wagstaff (born September 11, 1951 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an aerobatic pilot from the United States. Wagstaff traveled all over the world as a child: her father was a pilot for Japan Airlines, and Wagstaff would travel to Southeast Asia, Australia and Alaska to prepare for her own career as a pilot. Her first lesson was on a Cessna 185; since then, she has earned licenses to fly multiple aircraft, including commercial helicopters.
- Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker Robertson III (born September 9, 1925) is an American Academy Award-winning actor with a film and television career that spans half of a century. In addition to his Oscar and Emmy and several lifetime achievement awards from various film festivals, Robertson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.
- Bob Hoover
Robert A. "Bob" Hoover (born 1922) is a former air show pilot and United States Air Force test pilot. His personal trademark is a wide-brimmed straw hat and wide smile.
- Octave Chanute
Octave Chanute (18 February 1832 - November 23 1910) was an American railroad engineer and aviation pioneer. He provided the Wright brothers with help and advice, and helped to publicise their flying experiments.
- Jimmy Doolittle
General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, Sc.D. USAF (December 14 1896 - September 27 1993) was an American aviation pioneer. Doolittle served with as a general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War, earning the Medal of Honor as the commander of the Doolittle Raid.
- Glenn Curtiss
Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 - July 23, 1930) was an aviation pioneer and founder of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, now part of Curtiss-Wright Corporation.
- Bessie Coleman
Elizabeth 'Bessie' Coleman (January 26, 1892 - April 30, 1926), popularly known as "Queen Bess," was the first African American woman to become an airplane pilot, and the first American woman to hold an international pilot license.
- Eugene Cernan
Eugene Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) is a former American astronaut of Czech and Slovak ancestry. He has been into space three times: as co-pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972. In that final lunar landing mission, Cernan became "the last man on the moon" since he was the last to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module during its third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA).
- Frank Borman
Frank Borman retired from the Air Force in 1970, but is well remembered as a part of this nation's history, a pioneer in the exploration of space and veteran of both the Gemini 7, 1965 Space Orbital Rendezvous with Gemini 6 and the first manned lunar orbital mission, Apollo 8, in 1968. Borman's retirement from the Air Force in 1970 did not end his aviation career.
- Jacqueline Cochran
Jacqueline Cochran (11 May 1906 - 9 August 1980) was a pioneer American aviatrix, considered to be one of the most gifted race pilots of her generation. Her contributions to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) were also significant.
- Robin Olds
Robin Olds was an American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 16 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War. He retired in 1973 as a brigadier general. Born into a regular Army family, educated at West Point, and the product of an upbringing in the early years of the U.S. Army Air Corps, Olds epitomized the youthful World War II fighter pilot.
- Eddie Rickenbacker
Eddie Rickenbacker was best known as a World War I fighter ace and Medal of Honor recipient. He was also a race car driver and automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation. During his lifetime, Rickenbacker worked with many influential civilian and military leaders. He had keen insight into technology, and vision for future improvements.
- John Young
John Watts Young (born September 24, 1930) is a former NASA astronaut who walked on the Moon on April 21, 1972 during the Apollo 16 mission. Young enjoyed one of the longest and busiest careers of any astronaut in the American space program. He was the first person to fly into space six times, twice journeyed to the Moon, and as of 2007, …
- Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (3 March 1847 - 2 August 1922) was a scientist, inventor, and innovator. Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, he emigrated to Canada in 1870, and then to the United States in 1871, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1882. Bell was awarded the U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876; although other inventors had claimed the honor, the Bell patent remained in effect.
- Michael Collins
Major General Michael Collins (born October 31, 1930) is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was "Gemini 10", when he and command pilot John W. Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins undertook two EVAs. His second spaceflight was "Apollo 11" where he served as the command module pilot.
- Harry B. Combs
Harry Combs was an American aviation pioneer and author of many fiction and non-fiction books. He was born in Denver, Colorado on January 27, 1913 and died at age 90 in Phoenix, Arizona on December 23, 2003. Harry Combs "lived and breathed the Golden and Jet Ages of aviation" according to the governmental U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, in a 2003 press release., …
- Bernt Balchen
Bernt Balchen, D.F.C., (23 October 1899 - 17 October 1973), was a Norwegian-American polar (and general) aviation pioneer. Born at the farm Myren in Tveit, just outside Kristiansand, Norway, Balchen, at his death, became one of the few Norwegian-born people buried at Arlington Cemetery. During World War II, Balchen was responsible for setting up the pilot training camp/school for Norwegian exiled soldiers, "Little Norway", outside Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- William Anders
William Alison Anders (born October 17, 1933) is a former United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. Anders was born in Hong Kong and was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1955 and a master of science degree in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in 1962.
- Thomas Scott Baldwin
Thomas Scott Baldwin was a U.S. Army Major and pioneer balloonist. He was the first American to descend from a balloon in a parachute.
- Richard Bong
Richard "Dick" Ira Bong (September 24, 1920 - August 6, 1945) is the United States' highest-scoring air ace, having shot down 40 Japanese aircraft during World War II. Bong was a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF), and was a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
- Claire Lee Chennault
Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, was a United States aviator famous for commanding the "Flying Tigers" during World War II.
- Ira C. Eaker
Lieutenant General Ira Clarence Eaker KCB KBE (April 13, 1896 - August 6, 1987) was a general of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Eaker, as second-in-command of the prospective Eighth Air Force, was sent to England to form and organize its bomber command. However while he struggled to build up airpower in England, the organization of the Army Air Forces kept evolving and he was named commander of the Eighth Air Force on December 1, 1942.
- Robert R. Gilruth
Robert Rowe Gilruth (October 18 1913-August 17 2000) was an American aviation and space pioneer. In the beginning of his career he was involved with early research into supersonic flight and rocket-powered aircraft and then with the manned space program, including the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects. He worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics from 1937 to 1958 and its successor agency, the NASA, until retirement in 1973.
- Henry H. Arnold
General of the Air Force Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold GCB (June 25, 1886 – January 15, 1950) was an aviation pioneer and Chief of the United States Army Air Corps (from 1938), Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces (from 1941 until 1945) and the first and only General of the Air Force (in 1949). He is also the only American to achieve five-star rank in two of its armed services.
- Gabby Gabreski
Francis Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski (Franciszek Gabryszewski) (28 January 1919 - January 31 2002) was the top American fighter ace in Europe during World War II, a jet fighter ace in Korea, and a career officer in the United States Air Force with more than 26 years service. Although best known for his credited destruction of 34.5 aircraft in aerial combat and being one of only seven U.S. pilots to become an ace in two wars, …
- Bill Lear
William (Bill) Powell Lear (26 June 1902 - 14 May 1978) was an American inventor and businessman. He is best known for founding the Lear Jet Corporation, a manufacturer of business jets. He also developed the 8-track cartridge, an audio tape system popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Albert Scott Crossfield
Albert Scott Crossfield, normally referred to as Scott Crossfield, was an American naval officer, test pilot, and USAF astronaut.
- Clyde Vernon Cessna
Clyde Vernon Cessna (5 December 1879 - 20 November 1954) was an American aircraft designer, aviatior and founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation. Among his most famous inventions are the Cantilever wing and the V shaped tail configuration.
- Pete Conrad
Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. (June 2, 1930 - July 8, 1999), was an American astronaut and the third man to walk on the moon. He served on Gemini 5 and 11, Apollo 12, and Skylab 2 missions, and may have been scheduled for the Apollo 20 mission, which was cancelled.
- Anthony Fokker
Anton Herman Gerard Fokker (April 6, 1890 - December 23, 1939) was a pioneer in aviation and a Dutch-American aircraft manufacturer.
- Richard Evelyn Byrd
Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, USN (October 25, 1888 - March 11, 1957) was a pioneering American polar explorer and famous aviator. Richard Evelyn Byrd was born into one of Virginia's First Families in Winchester, Virginia. His parents were Richard Evelyn Byrd and Eleanor Bolling Flood. A descendant of William Byrd II of Westover Plantation (founder of Richmond, Virginia), his brother was Harry Flood Byrd who became a Governor of Virginia and U.S. Senator.
- Raoul Lufbery
Gervais Raoul Lufbery (March 14, 1885 - May 19, 1918) was a French-American fighter pilot and flying ace in World War I. Because he served in both the French and later the United States Army Air Service in World War I, he is sometimes listed as a French ace and sometimes as an American ace, though all but one of his 17 combat victories came while flying in French units.
- Elrey Borge Jeppesen
Elrey Borge Jeppesen (January 28, 1907 - November 26, 1996) was an aviation pioneer. He developed manuals and charts that allowed pilots worldwide to fly safely. He started in aviation by buying a Jenny and then an Alexander Eaglerock, and joined Tex Rankin's Flying Circus in Portland, Oregon. He went to Dallas and worked for Fairchild Aerial Surveys, photographing the Mississippi Delta surrounding New Orleans. In 1930, he went to work for Varney in Portland, …
- Calbraith Perry Rodgers
Calbraith Perry Rodgers (January 12, 1879 - April 3, 1912) was a pioneer American aviator who was the first civilian to purchase a Wright Flyer and he was the first to make a transcontinental flight.
- Albert Lee Ueltschi
Albert Lee Ueltschi (born May 15, 1917) was the founder of FlightSafety International. Once personal pilot to Juan Trippe and an associate to Charles Lindbergh, A.L. Ueltschi is considered the father of modern aviation training. On July 21, 2001, Ueltschi was enshrined at Dayton, Ohio, in the National Aviation Hall of Fame class of 2001, along with test pilot Joe Engle, Marine Corps ace Marion Carl, and USAF ace Robin Olds.
- Clarence Duncan Chamberlin
Clarence Duncan Chamberlin (November 11, 1893 - October 30, 1976) was the second man to solo pilot across the Atlantic Ocean, and he was the first to carry a passenger. Chamberlin was born in Denison, Iowa, and was the son of E.C. Chamberlin, who owned a jewelry store. Clarence graduated from Denison High School in 1912 and then attended Denison Normal and Business College for a year before attending Iowa State University for two years.