In 2007, the RI Aviation Hall of Fame provided Special Recognition awards to the men and women of the 1st Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment of the Rhode Island Army National Guard, which was named the Outstanding Army National Guard Aviation Unit of the Year nationwide for 2005. Flying in the Iraqi theater for virtually the […]
General Philip Conley is a LaSalle Academy alumnus and a 1950 Naval Academy graduate who grew up in West Warwick and flew combat missions in Korea and Vietnam. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross in Korea, flying with the famous forward air controller unit known as the “Mosquitoes”. Conley eventually rose to head the Flight Test […]
Edward “Ted” Cunningham is a Rumford native and a 1949 graduate of St. Raphael High School in Pawtucket. Ted enlisted in the Navy to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a carrier pilot. During the early days of the Vietnam War, he flew numerous highly classified ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) missions shadowing and photographing Soviet missiles. After […]
Omar Duquette, a Warwick native who was a “Doolittle Raider”, one of the 80 volunteers who manned sixteen B-25 aircraft launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to bomb Tokyo in April of 1942. He joined the Army in February, 1938 at Providence and served at Fort Slocum, New York before being assigned […]
Major Melvin Kimball is a World War II P-40 ace who was born in Providence and grew up in Greystone. He graduated from Hope High School in 1935, where he was a state champion wrestler. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1939, excelling in football and track. Kimball was one of the […]
Victor Pagé was born in 1885 and graduated from Classical High School in Providence in 1904. Although best known for his accomplishments in the automotive field, he may well have designed and built the first airplane ever to fly in Rhode Island. By 1909 he had already published his first aviation book, and was already […]
LT George Sutcliffe, USAF was born in North Providence and graduated from Mt. Pleasant High in 1940. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps shortly after Pearl Harbor, and graduated from flight school in May 1943. Sutcliffe deployed to Europe with the 368th Fighter Group, flying the P47 Thunderbolt. Prior to D-Day, their mission was […]