Tennessee State Hall of Fame

Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame Adopted: April 24, 2001

Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame

In 2001, the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame, located within the Tennessee Museum of Aviation at the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport in Sevier County was named the "official state aviation hall of fame."

Two years later, the Aviation Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Museum of Aviation were "designated as the official state repository and archive for aviation history."

Tennessee's Aviation Hall of Fame is a non-profit IRS 501(c)(3) public charitable foundation established to recognize, honor and enshrine individuals whose leadership in or for aviation, whether by exceptional service or extraordinary achievement, has made an enduring contribution to aviation for Tennessee, our nation or the world.

("Tennessee Aviation Network")

Tennessee Law

The following information was excerpted from the Tennessee Code Annotated, title 4, chapter 1, part 3, section 4-1-326.

Title 4 State Government
Chapter 1 General Provisions
Part 3 State Symbols
Tenn. Code Ann. § 4-1-326 (2011)

4-1-326. State aviation hall of fame.

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame, which is located at the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport in Sevier County and which has been founded for the purpose of honoring aviation pioneers and leaders in Tennessee, is designated as the official state aviation hall of fame.

(b) The Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame and affiliated Tennessee Museum of Aviation are designated as the official state repository and archive for aviation history.

HISTORY: Acts 2001, ch. 78, § 1; 2003, ch. 158, § 1.

Sources...

The State of Tennessee. Tennessee Code Annotated. Nashville: State of Tennessee. Web. 04 Aug 2011. .
"Tennessee' Official Aviation Hall of Fame." The Tennessee Aviation Network. The Tennessee Aviation Network, n.d. Web. 8 Sep 2011. .

Additional Information

Tennessee Museum of Aviation

Tennessee's Official Aviation Site: The Tennessee Aviation Network.

Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame: on Facebook.

Tennessee Museum of Aviation: Official website.

Aeronautics Division: Tennessee Department of Transportation.

More symbols & emblems: Complete list of official Tennessee state symbols from NETSTATE.COM.

Aviation in
Tennessee
Jim Fulbright

Aviation in Tennessee, by Jim Fulbright. 232 pages. Publisher: Mid-South Publishing, 1998. Tennessee's Aviation History in the Stories of People, Places and Events - The definitive Tennessee aviation history book. This quality, softbound volume covers topics from the earliest aerial pioneers to the present. - From balloons, airships and barnstormers to airmail, airfields and airlines.

Missions Remembered

Missions Remembered: Recollections of the World War II Air War, by The Men of the Middle Tennessee WW II Fighter Pilot Association. 220 pages. Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (March 1, 1998) From bailouts to belly landings, flaming cockpits to lurching carrier decks, here are the heroic tales of pilots from all backgrounds, united by a desire to fight their country's enemy to the finish. Drawn from a small corner of Tennessee, these men flew in all theatres of combat, in every front-line fighter aircraft. They soared to victory in the air--and fled from capture on the ground. This is a memorable anthology of combat tales with great appeal both for veterans and historians.

Spitfire Wingman
from Tennessee
Col. James R. Haun

Spitfire Wingman from Tennessee, by Col. James R. Haun, one of the first four inductees into the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame. 217 pages. Publisher: Stormwatch Press; 2nd edition (November 9, 2006) More than the memoir of an aerobatic master born to fling his body through cloudbanks, Spitfire Wingman from Tennessee offers a unique bird's-eye perspective on events and personalities of WWII and the Cold War. His desire to fly fighters won him a stint as famed New Zealand ace Johnny Checketts' wingman. Personal encounters with Patton, Vandenberg, Yeager, Truman and Nixon are replayed with perception and wit. While jockeying P-40s, P-51s, and P-47s, he was privileged to see the war both from twenty thousand feet and as Staff Officer at 9th Air Force Headquarters in Brussels, where he watched 'the Brass' play chess with armies on two world fronts. A stripped-down Thunderbolt fighter-bomber became his personal 400-mph runabout.

Beginning with fragile fabric-covered biplanes, the Colonel bears hands-on nostalgic witness to historic transformations steering manned flight from art toward automated science. Starting out as the Memphis 'Boy Wonder' who built his first airplane in 1933 by adapting a motorcycle engine, this gifted flyer takes you on an intimate inside journey from barnstormer to dog-fighter, to threading the Himalayan 'Hump,' to Berlin Airlift commander, then on to Presidential Squadron leader - finally becoming Chief Pilot of the Military Air Transport Service. Balancing dry humor with just enough technical detail to please aviation buffs, this self-revealing autobiography thunders on all twelve cylinders with sky-sweeping appeal.

Mama Bird
George Prince

Mama Bird: Biography of Evelyn Bryan Johnson, by George Prince. 148 pages. Publisher: Mayfield Printing (1994) Biography of flight instructor, extraordinaire, Evelyn Bryan Johnson was one of the first inductees into the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame in 2002. When she was inducted, at age 94, she was an active flight instructor and FAA pilot examiner. Also, with over 57,000 hours of flying time in logged, she was the highest flight time aviatrix in the world. She was also enshrined in the Flight Instructors Hall of Fame during its inaugural ceremony in 1997 and was inducted into the "National" Aviation Hall of Fame on July 21, 2007.

This biography, published in 1994, covers her remarkable life before the numerous hall of fame honors were bestowed.

Roaring Glory Warbirds

Roaring Glory Warbirds, DVD - Dolby, Color, NTSC, Black & White. The first and only series that puts you into the pilot's seat of a World War II fighter to experience the thrill of aerial combat.

Every sound effect - from the click of a battery switch to the rumble and cough of a 2200 horsepower radial engine starting up - has been recorded digitally. The magic of Dolby Digital surround sound will test the limit of your speaker system as you lift off an aircraft carrier for a mission unmatched in home entertainment.

Included in this series are the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the Mitsubishi Zero A6M5, the Vought F4U Corsair, the Grumman TBM Avenger, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, the Lockheed Lightning P-38, and more.