Who’s Who

The World Monuments Fund has recognized the Wright Brothers’ Dayton, Ohio, sites as part of its Irreplaceable America initiative.

Iris Cummings Critchell, an aviation pioneer and the last known surviving U.S. Olympic swimmer from the 1936 Berlin Games, passed away at age 104 last week. According to the New York Times, after competing in the games where she finished fourth in her 100m breaststroke heat in Berlin, Critchell turned her attention to another passion—aviation. […]

Ever since Orville bet Wilbur he could squeeze out ten more feet on those first precarious runs at Kitty Hawk, aviators have been setting—and beating—records in the air. Not content with highest, fastest, longest, today’s aviation records include such obscurities as distance goals for RC aircraft and numbers of skydivers attempting a vertical formation. The […]

Emma Hutchinson, a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman, has won the inaugural Richard L. Collins Writing Prize for Young Pilots, according to Sporty’s Pilot Shop. The company established the award last year under the banner of its Air Facts Journal, an online resurrection of the publication Richard L. Collins’ father, Leighton, launched in 1938. Midshipman Hutchinson […]

The 62nd annual Aircraft Electronics Association convention in Palm Springs, California, marked the official retirement of Paula Derks, the association’s longtime president. In this podcast recorded at the show, Paula reflected on the changes she’s seen in more than two decades overseeing AEA. Hint: It’s a lot. Duration: 8:40 File Size: 8.5MB download here

Perhaps it’s my imagination, but I think long-term relationships in the workplace aren’t as common as they once were. Because of the work we do at AVweb and the predilection of our management, we tend to attract and retain marathoners rather than sprinters. One of those was our dear colleague Mary Grady, who died this […]

Microsoft co-founder and aviation entrepreneur Paul Allen died Monday after a struggle with cancer. He was 65. Allen is well known in the tech industry as a co-founder of Microsoft in the 1970s, along with Bill Gates. But he had wide-ranging interests including major business ventures in aviation, most recently the Stratolaunch multi-engine jet designed […]

Mary Ellis, who flew Spitfires and bombers during World War II, has died at age 101. Ellis was one of 168 women who flew for the Air Transport Auxiliary, which employed civilians to deliver planes from factories to airfields. Nearly 10 percent of the ATA’s pilots were killed during the war, including aviation pioneer Amy […]

Bruce Landsberg, who is well known in GA circles thanks to 22 years with the AOPA Foundation and Air Safety Institute, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a member and vice-chair of the NTSB. Landsberg was nominated to the position last September by the White House. He will serve two years as vice-chair, […]

Dick Collins didn’t know me at all in 1978 and didn’t owe me anything. But Dick did two memorable things for me, two career bookends really, that will last with me until I go West as he did this week. I was the new marcomm specialist at Collins Avionics, hired that hot summer in Cedar […]