Aviation

Otto Lilienthal

German engineer Otto Lilienthal prepares for takeoff. Lilienthal experimented with aeronautics during the latter half of the 19th century. He modeled the curved wings of his gliders after the wings of a bird. After more than 2,000 successful flights, Lilienthal was killed in a crash in 1896.

Aviation, term applied to the science and practice of flight in heavier-than-air craft, including airplanes, gliders, helicopters, ornithopters, convertiplanes, and VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) and STOL (short takeoff and landing) craft (see Airplane; Glider; Helicopter). These are distinguished from lighter-than-air craft, which include balloons (free, usually spherical; and captive, usually elongated), and dirigible airships (see Airship; Ballooning).

Operational aviation is grouped broadly into three classes: military aviation, commercial aviation, and general aviation. Military aviation includes all forms of flying by the armed forces—strategic, tactical, and logistical. Commercial aviation embraces primarily the operation of scheduled and charter airlines. General aviation embraces all other forms of flying such as instructional flying, crop dusting by air, flying for sport, private flying, and transportation in business-owned airplanes, usually known as executive aircraft.

II

EARLY HISTORY

Centuries of dreaming, study, speculation, and experimentation preceded the first successful flight. The ancient legends contain numerous references to the possibility of movement through the air. Philosophers believed that it could be accomplished by imitating the wing motions of birds, and by using smoke or other lighter-than-air media. The first form of aircraft made was the kite, about the 5th century bc. In the 13th century, the English monk Roger Bacon conducted studies that led him to the conclusion that air could support a craft in the same manner that water supports boats. At the beginning of the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci gathered data on the flight of birds and anticipated developments that subsequently became practical. Among his important contributions to the development of aviation were his invention of the airscrew, or propeller, and the parachute. He conceived three different types of heavier-than-air craft: an ornithopter, a machine with mechanical wings designed to flap like those of a bird; a helicopter, designed to rise by the revolving of a rotor on a vertical axis; and a glider, consisting of a wing fixed to a frame on which a person might coast on the air. Leonardo's concepts involved the use of human muscular power, quite inadequate to produce flight with the craft that he pictured. Nevertheless, he was important because he was the first to make scientific proposals.

III

THE 19TH CENTURY

The practical development of aviation took various paths during the 19th century. The British aeronautical engineer and inventor Sir George Cayley was a farsighted theorist who proved his ideas with experiments involving kites and controlled and human-carrying gliders. He designed a combined helicopter and horizontally propelled aircraft and deserves to be called the father of aviation. The British scientist Francis Herbert Wenham used a wind tunnel in his studies and foresaw the use of multiple wings placed one above the other. He was also a founding member of the Royal Aeronautical Society of Great Britain. Makers and fliers of models included the British inventors John Stringfellow and William Samuel Henson, who collaborated in the early 1840s to produce the model of an airliner. Stringfellow's improved 1848 model, powered with a steam engine and launched from a wire, demonstrated lift but failed to climb. The French inventor Alphonse Pénaud produced a hand-launched model powered with rubber bands that flew about 35 m (about 115 ft) in 1871. Another French inventor, Victor Tatin, powered his model plane with compressed air. Tethered to a central pole, it was pulled by two traction propellers; rising with its four-wheeled chassis, it made short, low-altitude flights.

The British-born Australian inventor Lawrence Hargrave produced a rigid-winged model, propelled by flapping blades that were operated by a compressed-air motor. It flew 95 m (312 ft) in 1891. The American astronomer Samuel Pierpont Langley produced (1896) steam-powered, tandem-monoplane models with wingspans of 4.6 m (15 ft). They repeatedly flew 900 to 1,200 m (3,000 to 4,000 ft) for about 1.5 min, climbing in large circles. Then, with power exhausted, they descended slowly to alight on the waters of the Potomac River.

Numerous efforts to imitate the flight of birds were also made with experiments involving muscle-powered paddles or flappers, but none proved successful. These included the early attempts of the Austrian Jacob Degen, who carried out various experiments from 1806 to 1813; the Belgian Vincent DeGroof, who crashed to his death in 1874, and the American R. J. Spaulding who actually received a patent for his idea of muscle- powered flight in 1889.

More successful were the attempts of aeronauts who advanced the art through their study of gliding and contributed extensively to the design of wings. They included the Frenchman Jean Marie Le Bris, who tested a glider with movable wings, the American John Joseph Montgomery, and the renowned Otto Lilienthal, of Germany. Lilienthal's experiments with aircraft, including kites and ornithopters, attained greatest success with his glider flights in 1894-96. In 1896, however, he met his death when his glider went out of control and crashed. Percy S. Pilcher, of Scotland, who had attained remarkable success with his gliders, had a fatal fall in 1899. The American engineer Octave Chanute had a limited success with multiplane gliders, in 1896-1902. Chanute's most notable contribution to flight was his compilation of developments, Progress in Flying Machines (1894).

Additional information on aerodynamics and on flight stability was gained by a number of experiments with kites. The American inventor James Means published his results in the Aeronautical Annuals of 1895, 1896, and 1897. Lawrence Hargrave invented the box kite in 1893 and Alexander Graham Bell developed huge human-carrying tetrahedral-celled kites between 1895 and 1910.

Powered experiments with full-scale models were conducted by various investigators between 1890 and 1901. Most important were the attempts of Langley, who tested and flew an unmanned quarter-sized model in 1901 and 1903 before testing a full-scale model of his machine, which he called the aerodrome. This model was the first gasoline-engine-powered heavier-than-air craft to fly. His full-scale machine was completed in 1903 and tested twice, but each launching ended in a mishap. The German aviator Karl Jatho also tested a full-scale powered craft in 1903 but without success.

Advances through the 19th century laid the foundation for the eventual successful flight by the Wright brothers in 1903, but the major developments were the result of the efforts of Chanute, Lilienthal, and Langley after 1885. A sound basis in experimental aerodynamics had been established, although the stability and control required for sustained flight had not been acquired. More important, successful powered flight needed the light gasoline engine to replace the heavy steam engine.

IV

KITTY HAWK AND AFTER

On December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright made the world's first successful flights in a heavier-than-air craft under power and control. The airplane had been designed, constructed, and flown by them, each brother making two flights that day. The longest, by Wilbur, extended to a distance of 260 m (852 ft) in 59 sec. The next year, continuing the development of their design and improving their skill as pilots, the brothers made 105 flights, the longest lasting more than 5 min. The following year, their best flight was 38.9 km (24.2 mi) in 38 min 3 sec. All these flights were in open country, the longest involving numerous turns, usually returning to near the starting point.

Not until 1906 did anyone else fly in an airplane. In that year short hops were made by a Romanian, Trajan Vuia, living in Paris, and by Jacob Christian Ellehammer, in Denmark. The first officially witnessed flight in Europe was made in France, by Alberto Santos-Dumont, of Brazil. His longest flight, on November 12, 1906, covered a distance of about 220 m (722 ft) in 21.2 sec. The airplane, the 14- bis, was of his own design, made by the Voisin firm in Paris, and powered with a Levavasseur 40-horsepower Antoinette engine. The airplane resembled a large box kite, with a smaller box at the front end of a long, cloth-covered frame. The engine and propeller were at the rear, and the pilot stood in a basket just forward of the main rear wing. Not until near the end of 1907 did anyone in Europe fly for 1 min; Henri Farman did so in an airplane built by Voisin.

In great contrast were the flights of the Wright brothers. Orville, in the U.S., demonstrated a Flyer for the Army Signal Corps at Fort Myer, Virginia, beginning September 3, 1908. On September 9 he completed the world's first flight of more than one hour and, also for the first time, carried a passenger, Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm, for a 6-min 24-sec flight. These demonstrations were interrupted on September 17, when the airplane crashed, injuring Orville and his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge, who died hours later from a concussion. Selfridge was the first person to be fatally injured in a powered airplane. Wilbur, meanwhile, had gone to France in August 1908, and on December 31 of that year completed a flight of over 2 hours and 20 minutes, demonstrating total control of his Flyer, turning gracefully, and climbing or descending at will. Recovered from his injuries, and with Wilbur's assistance, Orville resumed demonstrations for the Signal Corps in the following July and met their requirements by the end of the month. The airplane was purchased on August 2, becoming the first successful military airplane. It remained in active service for about two years and was then retired to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., at which it is displayed today.

Prominent among American designers, makers, and pilots of airplanes was Glenn Hammond Curtiss, of Hammondsport, New York. He first made a solo flight on June 28, 1907, in a dirigible airship built by Thomas Baldwin. It was powered with a Curtiss engine, modified from those used on Curtiss motorcycles. In the following May, Curtiss flew alone in an airplane designed and built by a group known as the Aerial Experiment Association, organized by Alexander Graham Bell. Curtiss was one of the five members. In their third airplane, the June Bug, Curtiss, on July 4, 1908, covered a distance of 1552 m (5090 ft) in 1 min 42.5 sec., winning the first American award, the Scientific American Trophy, given for an airplane flight. At Reims, France, on August 28, 1909, Curtiss won the first international speed event, at about 75.6 km/h (47 mph). On May 29, 1910, he won the New York World prize of $10,000 for the first flight from Albany, New York, to New York City. In August of that year he flew along the shore of Lake Erie, from Cleveland, Ohio, to Sandusky, Ohio, and back. In January 1911 he became the first American to develop and fly a seaplane. The first successful seaplane had been made and flown by Henri Fabre, of France, on March 28, 1910.

The pioneer airplane flight across the English Channel, from Calais, France, to Dover, England, a distance of about 37 km (about 23 mi) in 35.5 min, was made July 25, 1909, by the French engineer Louis Blériot, in a monoplane that he had designed and built.

During the period before World War I the design of both the airplane and the engine showed considerable improvement. Pusher biplanes— two-winged airplanes with the engine and propeller behind the wing—were succeeded by tractor biplanes, with the propeller in front of the wing. Only a few types of monoplanes were used. Huge biplane bombers with two, three, or four engines were introduced by both contending forces in World War I. In Europe, the rotary engine was favored at first, but was succeeded by radial-type engines. In Britain and the U.S., water-cooled engines of the V type predominated.

The first transportation of mail by airplane to be officially approved by the U.S. Post Office Department began on September 23, 1911, at the Nassau Boulevard air meet, Long Island, New York. The pilot was Earle Ovington, who carried the mail bag on his knees, flying about 8 km (5 mi) to Mineola, Long Island, where he tossed the bag overboard, to be picked up and carried to the post office. The service was continued for only a week (see Airmail).

In 1911 the first transcontinental flight across the United States, from New York City to Long Beach, California, was completed by the American aviator Calbraith P. Rodgers. He left Sheepshead Bay, in Brooklyn, New York, on September 17, 1911, using a Wright machine, and landed at his goal on December 10, 1911, 84 days later. His actual flying time was 3 days, 10 hr, and 14 min.

V

WORLD WAR I AND AFTER

During World War I both airplanes and lighter-than-air craft were used by the belligerents. The urgent necessities of war provided the impetus for designers to construct special planes for reconnaissance, attack, pursuit, bombing, and other highly specialized military purposes.

Because of the pressure of war, more pilots were trained and more planes built during the 4 years of conflict than in the 13 years since the first flight.

Many of the surplus military planes released after the war were acquired and operated by wartime-trained aviators, who “barnstormed” from place to place, using such fields as were available. Their operations included practically any flying activity that would provide an income, including carrying passengers, aerial photography, advertising (usually by writing names of products on their airplanes), flight instruction, air racing, and exhibitions of stunt flying.

Notable flights following World War I included a nonstop flight of 1,170 km (727 mi) from Chicago to New York City in 1919 by Captain E. F. White of the U.S. Army. In 1920 two South African pilots, Quintin Brand and Pierre Van Ryneveld, flew from London to Cape Town. In the same year, five U.S. Army Air Service planes, each carrying a pilot and a copilot-mechanic, with Captain St. Clair Streett in command, flew from New York City to Nome, Alaska, and returned. In other army exploits, Lieutenant James Harold Doolittle, in 1922, made a one-stop flight from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Diego, California.; Lieutenant Oakley Kelly and Lieutenant John A. Macready made the first nonstop transcontinental flight, May 2-3, 1923, from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, to Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, and the first flight completely around the world was made from April 6 to September 28, 1924. Four Liberty-engined Douglas Cruisers, each with two men, left Seattle, Washington, and two returned. One plane had been lost in Alaska, the other in the North Sea; there were no fatalities.

Transoceanic flying began with the flight of the NC-4, the initials denoting Navy-Curtiss. This huge flying boat flew from Rockaway Beach, Long Island, to Plymouth, England, with intermediate stops including Newfoundland, the Azores, and Lisbon, Portugal; the elapsed time was from May 8 to May 31, 1919. The first nonstop transatlantic flight was made by the British aviators John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown. They flew from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland, June 14-15, 1919, in a little over 16 hours. The fliers won the London Daily Mail prize of $50,000.

The first nonstop solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean was the flight of the American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh from New York City to Paris, a distance of 5810 km (3610 mi) covered in 33.5 hr on May 20-21, 1927. On June 28-29 of the same year Lieutenant Lester J. Maitland and Lieutenant Albert F. Hegenberger (1895-1983) of the U.S. Army made a nonstop flight from California to Hawaii, a distance of 3860 km (2400 mi) in 26 hr. Between August 27 and September 14 two other Americans, William S. Brock and Edward F. Schlee, flew from Newfoundland to Japan, a trip of 19,800 km (12,300 mi).

The first nonstop westward flight by an airplane over the Atlantic was on April 12-13, 1928, by Captain Herman Köhl and Baron Guenther von Hünefeld, Germans, and Captain James Fitzmaurice, an Irishman. They flew from Dublin, Ireland, to Greenly Island, Labrador, a distance of 3564 km (2215 mi). Between May 31 and June 9, 1928, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles T. P. Ulm, Australian fliers, with Harry W. Lyon and James Warner, Americans, flew the Southern Cross from Oakland, California, to Sydney, Australia, 11,910 km (7400 mi) with stops at Hawaii, the Fiji Islands, and Brisbane, Australia. Three American fliers, Amelia Earhart with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, crossed the Atlantic from Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, to Burry Port, Wales, on June 17-18; and from July 3 to 5 Captain Arturo Ferrarin and Major Carlo P. Del Prete, Italian army pilots, made a nonstop flight of 7186 km (4466 mi) across the Atlantic from Rome to Point Genipabu, Brazil.

In 1920 airlines were established for mail and passenger service between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba, and between Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1921 scheduled transcontinental airmail service between New York City and San Francisco was inaugurated by the U.S. Post Office Department. Congress passed the Kelly Air Mail Act in 1925, authorizing the Post Office Department to contract with air-transport operators for the transportation of U.S. mail. Fourteen domestic airmail lines were established in 1926. Lines were also established and extended between the U.S. and Central and South America and between the United States and Canada.

Between 1930 and 1940, commercial air transportation was greatly expanded, and frequent long-distance and transoceanic flights were undertaken. The transcontinental nonstop flight record was reduced by American aviators flying small planes and, subsequently, transport planes. In 1930 Roscoe Turner flew from New York City to Los Angeles in 18 hr 43 min; Frank Hawks flew from Los Angeles to New York City in 12 hr 25 min. In 1937 Howard Hughes flew from Burbank, California, to Newark, New Jersey, in 7 hr 28 min. In 1939 Ben Kelsey flew from Marsh Field, California, to Mitchell Field, New York, in 7 hr 45 min.

VI

WORLD WAR II

Most of the major countries of the world developed commercial air transportation in varying degrees, with the U.S. gradually gaining ascendancy. On the foundations of the U.S. air-transport industry were built the military-transport commands that played a decisive role in winning World War II.

Largest of all international airlines in operation when World War II began was Pan American Airways, which, with its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, served 47 countries and colonies on 82,000 route miles, linking all continents and spanning most oceans.

The demands of World War II greatly accelerated the further development of aircraft. Important advances were achieved in the development of planes for bombing and combat and for the transportation of parachute troops and of tanks and other heavy equipment. Aircraft became a decisive factor in warfare.

Small aircraft production expanded rapidly. Under the Civilian Pilot Training program of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, private operators expanded their facilities and gave training to thousands of students, who subsequently became the backbone of the army, navy, and marine-air arms. Types of aircraft designed for personal use found extensive military use throughout the world. Large contracts for light planes were awarded by the U.S. Army and Navy in 1941.

During 1941 American military aircraft were in action on all fronts. The number of persons employed in the aviation industry totaled 450,000, compared to about 193,000 employed before World War II. About 3,375,000 passengers, about 1 million more than in 1940, were carried by 18 U.S. airlines. Mail and express loads increased by about 30 percent.

Toward the end of the war, airplane production attained an all-time high, air warfare increased in intensity and extent, and domestic airlines established new passenger- and cargo-carrying records. In the U.S., the number of planes produced in 1944 totaled 97,694, with an average weight of approximately 4770 kg (about 10,500 lb). An outstanding development in the same year was the appearance in air combat of German jet-engined and rocket-propelled fighter planes.

VII

AFTER WORLD WAR II

In 1945, U.S. military-aircraft production was sharply curtailed, but civilian-aircraft orders increased considerably. By the end of the year, U.S. manufacturers held orders for 40,000 planes, in contrast to the former production record for civilian use of 6,844 planes in 1941. Again the domestic and international airlines of the U.S. broke all records, with all categories of traffic showing substantial gains over 1944. Both passenger fares and basic freight rates were reduced. International commercial services were resumed in 1945.

The experience gained in the production of military aircraft during the war was utilized in civil-aircraft production following the close of hostilities. Larger, faster aircraft, with such improvements as pressurized cabins, were made available to the airlines. Improved airports, more efficient weather forecasting, additional aids to navigation (see Air Traffic Control), and public demand for air transportation all aided in the postwar boom in airline passenger travel and freight transportation.

Experimentation with new aerodynamic designs, new metals, new power plants, and electronic inventions resulted in the development of high-speed turbojet planes designed for transoceanic flights, supersonic aircraft, experimental rocket planes, STOL craft, and the space shuttle (see Airplane; Jet Propulsion; Space Exploration).

In December 1986 the ultralight experimental aircraft Voyager successfully completed the first nonstop around-the-world flight without refueling. Voyager was designed by Burt Rutan in an unorthodox H shape with outrigger booms and rudders. The aircraft had two engines: one engine in front for takeoffs, landings, and maneuvering; the other in back for in-flight power. Composed mostly of lightweight plastic composite materials, the plane weighed only 4420 kg (9750 lb) at takeoff—with 4500 liters (1200 gallons) of fuel in its 17 fuel tanks—and 840 kg (1858 lb) on landing. Pilots Dick Rutan, Burt's brother, and Jeana Yeager flew 40,254 km (25,012 mi) in 9 days, 3 min, 44 sec at an average speed of 186.3 km/h (115.8 mph), establishing a distance and endurance record. The previous distance record of 20,169 km (12,532 mi) was set in 1962.

In 1967 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) replaced the Federal Aviation Agency, which had been created in 1958. The FAA classified the air transportation industry in the U.S. as commercial air carriers, regionals and commuters, helicopters, and all-cargo carriers. Nonscheduled air carriers are in a separate classification. The scheduled airlines maintain a trade association known as the Air Transport Association of America. See Air Transport Industry; Transportation, Department of.

After World War II a marked increase in the use of company-owned airplanes for the transportation of executives took place. In fact, by the early 1980s such craft composed well more than 90 percent of all aircraft active in the U.S. General trends in the U.S. air transport industry, in the 1980s, included airline deregulation (begun in 1978), mergers of airlines, and fluctuating air fares and “price wars.” Three major U.S. airlines ceased operations in 1991: Pan American and Eastern, both of which had been flying since 1928, and a relative newcomer, Midway, which was founded in 1979.

Conferences relative to the problems of international flight were held as early as 1889, but it was not until 1947 that an organization was established to handle the problems of large-scale international air travel: the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an affiliate of the United Nations (UN), with headquarters in Montréal. Working in close cooperation with ICAO is the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which also has its headquarters in Montréal and is comprised of about 100 airlines that seek jointly to solve mutual problems. Another such organization is the Fédération Aéronautique International (FAI).

VIII

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Aviation security became a major issue following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States in which hijackers crashed two commercial jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and another into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. In November 2001 the United States Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act in response to the attacks, which exposed a number of weaknesses in airport and airline security. The new law expanded the number of baggage screeners, imposed standards for their training, and made them federal employees for an interim period of time. Beginning in January 2002 it required that all passenger luggage, including checked luggage, be examined. It also mandated that by the end of 2002 all luggage must be put through special explosives-detecting devices. The law increased the number of armed federal air marshals flying on domestic flights and required international airlines to turn over advance copies of their passenger lists to U.S. Customs officials for background checks to screen out suspected terrorists.

Aboard commercial airplanes, the law required that cockpits be fortified to prevent intruders from commandeering the airplanes, as happened during the September 11 attacks. A number of hijackers, who were all foreign nationals, had attended flight training schools in Florida. The new law mandated that flight instructors report the names of any foreign nationals seeking training on aircraft weighing more than 5,600 kg (12,500 lb). Flight instructors were required to report the names to the U.S. attorney general’s office for screening, and the attorney general’s office was also required to review the background of any foreign national seeking to sell, lease, or charter a plane weighing more than 5,600 kg.

National Aviation Hall of Fame Members

The National Aviation Hall of Fame was established in Dayton, Ohio, in 1962. It is dedicated to honoring the outstanding pioneers of air and space.

Pioneer

Year of induction

Aldrin, Edwin Eugene, Jr. (Buzz)	2000
Alison, John R.	2005
Allen, William Mcpherson	1971
Anders, William A.	2004
Anderson, Clarence E. 'Bud'	2008
Andrews, Frank Maxwell	1986
Armstrong, Harry George	1998
Armstrong, Neil Alden	1979
Arnold, Henry Harley	1967
Atwood, John Leland	1984
Balchen, Bernt	1973
Baldwin, Thomas Scott	1964
Beachey, Lincoln	1966
Beech, Olive Ann	1981
Beech, Walter Herschel	1977
Bell, Alexander Graham	1965
Bell, Lawrence Dale	1977
Bellanca, Giuseppe Mario	1993
Bendix, Vincent Hugo	1991
Boeing, William Edward	1966
Bong, Richard Ira	1986
Borman, Frank	1982
Boyd, Albert	1984
Boyne, Walter J.	2007
Bradley, Mark Edward	1992
Brown, George Scratchley	1985
Brukner, Clayton John	1997
Byrd, Richard Evelyn	1968
Carl, Marion E.	2001
Cernan, Gene	2000
Cessna, Clyde Vernon	1978
Chamberlin, Clarence Duncan	1976
Chanute, Octave	1963
Chennault, Claire Lee	1972
Cochran, Jacqueline	1971
Coleman, Bessie	2006
Collins, Michael	1985
Combs, Harry Benjamin	1996
Conrad, Charles, Jr.	1980
Craigie, Laurence	2000
Crawford, Frederick Coolidge	1993
Crossfield, Albert Scott	1983
Cunningham, Alfred Austell	1965
Curtiss, Glenn Hammond	1964
Dargue, Herbert Arthur	1997
Davis, Benjamin Oliver, Jr.	1994
Deseversky, Alexander Procofieff	1970
Doolittle, James Harold	1967
Douglas, Donald Wills	1969
Draper, Charles Stark	1981
Eaker, Ira Clarence	1970
Earhart, Amelia (Nee Putnam)	1968
Eielson, Carl Benjamin	1985
Ellyson, Theodore Gordon	1964
Ely, Eugene Burton	1965
Engle, Joe H.	2001
Everest, Frank Kendall	1989
Fairchild, Sherman Mills	1979
Fleet, Rueben Hollis	1975
Fokker, Anthony Herman Gerard	1980
Ford, Henry	1984
Foss, Joseph Jacob	1984
Fossett, Steve	2007
Foulois, Benjamin Delahauf	1963
Frankman, Betty Skelton	2005
Frye, William John	1992
Fulton, Fitzhugh Lee	1999
Gabreski, Francis Stanley	1978
Gentile, Dominic Salvatore	1995
Gilruth, Robert Rowe	1994
Glenn, John Herschel, Jr.	1976
Goddard, George William	1976
Goddard, Robert Hutchings	1966
Godfrey, Arthur	1987
Goldwater, Barry Morris	1982
Grissom, Virgil Ivan	1987
Gross, Robert Ellsworth	1970
Grumman, Leroy Randle	1972
Guggenheim, Harry Frank	1971
Haughton, Daniel Jeremiah	1987
Hegenberger, Albert Francis	1976
Heinemann, Edward Henry	1981
Hill, David Lee 'Tex'	2006
Hoover, Robert A.	1988
Hughes, Howard Robard	1973
Ingalls, David Sinton	1983
James, Daniel, Jr.	1993
Jeppesen, Elrey B.	1990
Johnson, Clarence Leonard	1974
Johnson, Evelyn Bryan	2007
Johnston, Alvin Melvin	1993
Jones, Thomas Victor	1992
Kelleher, Herbert D.	2008
Kenney, George Churchill	1971
Kettering, Charles Franklin	1979
Kindelberger, James Howard	1972
Kittinger, Joseph William, Jr.	1997
Knabenshue, A. Roy	1965
Knight, William J.	1988
Lahm, Frank Purdy	1963
Langley, Samuel Pierpont	1963
Lear, William Powell, Sr.	1978
Lemay, Curtis Emerson	1972
Levier, Anthony William	1978
Lindbergh, Anne Morrow	1979
Lindbergh, Charles Augustus	1967
Link, Edwin Albert	1976
Lockheed, Allan Haines	1986
Loening, Grover	1969
Love, Nancy Harkness	2005
Lovell, James Arthur, Jr.	1998
Lufbery, Raoul Gervais	1998
Luke, Frank, Jr.	1975
Maccready, Paul B.	1991
Macready, John Arthur	1968
Martin, Glenn Luther	1966
Mccampbell, David	1996
Mcdonnell, James Smith	1977
McGuire, Thomas	2000
Meyer, John Charles	1988
Mitchell, William	1966
Mitscher, Marc Andrew	1989
Moffett, William A.	2008
Montgomery, John Joseph	1964
Moorer, Thomas Hinman	1987
Moss, Sanford Alexander	1976
Neumann, Gerhard	1986
Nichols, Ruth Rowland	1992
Norden, Carl Lukas	1994
Northrop, John Knudsen	1974
Olds, Robin	2001
Pangborn, Clyde Edward	1995
Patterson, William Allan	1976
Piasecki, Frank N.	2002
Piper, William Thomas, Sr.	1980
Pitcairn, Harold Frederick	1995
Poberezny, Paul Howard	1999
Post, Wiley Hardeman	1969
Quimby, Harriet	2004
Read, Albert Cushing	1965
Reeve, Robert Campbell	1975
Rentschler, Frederick Brant	1982
Rich, Benjamin (Ben) R.	2005
Richardson, Holden Chester	1978
Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon	1965
Ride, Sally K.	2007
Ridley, Jackie L. (Jack)	2004
Robertson, Cliff	2006
Rodgers, Calbraith Perry	1964
Rogers, Will	1977
Rushworth, Robert A.	1990
Rutan, Elbert Leander	1995
Rutan, Richard	2002
Ryan, T.Claude	1974
Schirra, Walter Marty, Jr.	1986
Schriever, Bernard Adolf	1980
Selfridge, Thomas Etholen	1965
Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr,	1977
Sikorsky, Igor Ivanovich	1968
Six, Robert Forman	1980
Slayton, Donald Kent	1996
Smith, Cyrus Rowlett	1974
Smith, Frederick W.	2007
Spaatz, Carl Andrew	1967
Sperry, Elmer Ambrose, Sr.	1973
Sperry, Lawrence Burst, Sr.	1981
Stafford, Thomas Patten	1997
Stanley, Robert Morris	1990
Stapp, John Paul	1985
Stearman, Lloyd Carlton	1989
Stockdale, James B.	2002
Taylor, Charles Edward	1965
Thaden, Louise	1999
Thomas, Lowell	1992
Tibbets, Paul Warfield, Jr.	1996
Towers, John Henry	1966
Trippe, Juan Terry	1970
Tucker, Sean D.	2008
Turner, Roscoe	1975
Twining, Nathan Farragut	1976
Ueltschi, Albert Lee	2001
Vandenberg, Hoyt Sanford	1991
Von Braun, Wernher	1982
Von Karman, Theodore	1983
Von Ohain, Hans Joachim Pabst	1990
Vought, Chance M.	1989
Wade, Leigh	1974
Wagstaff, Patty	2004
Walden, Henry W.	1964
Wells, Edward Curtis	1991
White, Robert M.	2006
Wilson, Thorton Arnold	1983
Williams, Sam Barlow	1998
Woolman, Collett Everman (C.E.)	1994
Wright, Orville	1962
Wright, Wilbur	1962
Yeager, Charles Elwood	1973
Young, John W.	1988
Zemke, Hubert	2002
Source: The National Aviation Hall of Fame.