The National Aviation Hall of Fame has selected six inductees for its Class of 2027, including former NASA astronaut Charles “Charlie” Precourt and aircraft-leasing pioneer Steven Udvar-Hazy. The class was announced in Las Vegas during the National Business Aviation Association’s NBAA-BACE convention and includes figures from commercial aviation, spaceflight, planetary exploration, model rocketry and aviation history. The induction ceremony is scheduled for 24 September 2027 in Dayton, Ohio.
The other inductees are NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer J. “Bob” Balaram, who led development of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter; model-rocketry pioneer Vernon Estes; aviator and aircraft designer Neal Vernon Loving; and astronaut and engineer Judith Resnik, who will be honoured posthumously.
Precourt is being recognised for Air Force service, test-pilot work, four Space Shuttle missions, leadership of NASA’s Astronaut Corps and command of Atlantis during the first Shuttle docking with Russia’s Mir space station. Udvar-Hazy helped establish modern commercial-aircraft leasing, expanding airlines’ access to newer aircraft and influencing fleet planning and airliner development.
Balaram’s Ingenuity achieved the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Estes founded Estes Industries in 1958 and developed automated manufacturing technology that enabled affordable model-rocket engines. Loving returned to flying after losing both legs in a 1944 glider accident and became the first African American certified to race aircraft. Resnik, one of NASA’s first six women astronauts selected in 1978, became the second American woman to fly in space before dying in the 1986 Challenger accident.