First Flight Society Announces 2021 Class of Honorary Members

  • Mark Baker
  • Tom Crouch
  • Rob Holland

– November 18, 2021 – The First Flight Society announces 3 new Honorary Members: AOPA President Mark Baker, Historian Tom Crouch and Aerobatic Champion Rob Holland.

Tom D Crouch is an American aeronautics historian and curator. Tom Crouch joined the Smithsonian in 1974 and has served both the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of American History in a variety of curatorial and administrative posts. Dr. Crouch retired in 2018 and is a curator emeritus. He is the author or editor of several books and many articles for both popular magazines and scholarly journals. These include: The Bishop’s Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Mark Baker is Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA)’s fifth president. He is a commercial pilot with single- and multiengine land and seaplane ratings and a rotorcraft rating. In conjunction with his role as president and CEO of AOPA, Baker is chairman of AOPA’s Political Action Committee, chief executive officer for the AOPA Foundation, president of the International Council of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Associations representing pilots in 72 countries, and publisher of AOPA Pilot.

Rob Holland is one of the premier airshow performers and freestyle aerobatic competition pilots in the world today. He is Ten-time, consecutive, U.S. National Aerobatic Champion, Five-time, consecutive, World 4-minute Freestyle Champion and Eleven-time, U.S. 4-minute Freestyle Champion.

Tom has had a long association with the First Flight Society and often speaks about the Wright Brothers at the December 17th Wright Brothers Celebration. Rob joins aerobatic pilots Sean D Tucker and Patty Wagstaff as a First Flight Society Honorary Member. Mark Baker is a longtime general aviation (GA) pilot and only the fifth president in the 75-year history of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).

The Honorary Member program launched last year to enhance the public visibility of luminaries like these who have achieved national recognition in aviation. First Flight Society will recognize them in Society Media during their lifetime. In turn, FFS offers them the chance to attend the December 17th Luncheon in Kitty Hawk, NC and be honored along with that year’s Honoree. With the cancellation of last year’s luncheon, the Society hopes to renew that offer this December to the Class of 2020.

This year’s honoree is Dr Sally K Ride, the first American woman in space. Ride was a Physicist, astronaut, and champion of science education. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She will be inducted into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine at Wright Brothers National Memorial on December 17, 2021.

The FFS plans an annual Wright Brothers Day Celebration at the Wright Brothers National Memorial on December 17th mandated by their bylaws to memorialize the work of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, NC. More information about the event can be found at www.wrightbrothersday.org

More information about the First Flight Society can be found at www.firstflight.org

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Make Plans to Celebrate Wright Brothers Day 2021

Save the date! December 17th, 2021 is the 118th anniversary of powered flight. The First Flight Society will be honoring Sally Ride as the 2021 Paul E Garber Shrine inductee. The Shrine is located in the Museum and Visitors Center at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, USA.

This honor is selected annually by a high-level panel appointed by the First Flight Society, from among numerous nominations submitted from around the world as well as compiled lists of qualified candidates. The induction ceremony will be held on Wright Brothers Day, December 17, 2021, with a celebration luncheon also held that day in Kitty Hawk. A portrait of Sally Ride will be unveiled and presented at the ceremony on December 17th.

Dr Ride was a Mission Specialist on STS-7 in 1983 and STS-41-G in 1984. On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space. Until her death on July 23, 2012, Ride continued to help students. A long-time advocate for improved science education, Dr. Ride has written five science books for children. She worked with science programs and festivals around the United States.

FFS will recognize our 2020 and 2021 Classes of Honorary Members. The Class of 2020 is Colonel Gail Halverson aka “Candy Bomber”, Brigadier General Charles McGee, Lt Colonel Dick Rutan, Sean Tucker, and Patty Wagstaff. Halvorsen, McGee and Rutan were Paul Garber honorees in the past. Col Halvorsen was inducted in 2019 and General McGee as a Tuskegee Airman in 2004. Tucker and Wagstaff are world renowned aerobatics pilots.

The 2021 Class of Honorary members will be announced on November 19th, 2021

The First Flight Society is proud and honored to have all of these luminaries as new Honorary Members.

Save the Date for Wright Brothers Day 2021

Every December 17th, The First Flight Society celebrates the Anniversary of powered flight at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. This day is also known as Wright Brothers Day.
Sally K Ride, has been named the 2021 Honoree to be inducted into the Dr. Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine located in the Museum and Visitors Center at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, USA.This honor is selected annually by a high-level panel appointed by the First Flight Society, from among numerous nominations submitted from around the world as well as compiled lists of qualified candidates. The induction ceremony will be held on Wright Brothers Day, December 17, 2021, with a celebration Luncheon held that afternoon in Kitty Hawk. A portrait of Sally Ride will be unveiled and presented at the morning ceremony on December 17th, celebrating the 118th Anniversary of the Wright Brothers First Flight.

The event will be from 9AM-5PM, both in person and online. The morning ceremonies will be from 9-11 at the WBNM park. Come out and see speakers from NASA Langley Research Center and Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego. Park admission will be free that day. There will be videos and livestreaming on Facebook Live. The morning ceremony will be capped off with a Flyover. Members and the public are invited to our Celebration luncheon in Kitty Hawk at 12 noon. Following the luncheon is our FFS Annual Membership meeting. 

Please start making plans to join us in the Outer Banks of North Carolina to “Celebrate the 12 Seconds That Changed the World”!