The NAA's most memorable aviation awards of 2005 recognize today's pioneers of flight.
This past spring, as it does each year, the National Aeronautics Association (NAA) recognized achievements from across the spectrum of American aviation. In one of the biggest stories last year, Steve Fossett set a new record for Speed Around the World, Nonstop, Nonrefueled with his March flight in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. And he was the first pilot to complete the task solo. It took him 67 hours, 2 minutes and 38 seconds to fly around the world, with a record speed of 342.24 miles per hour.
Troy Bradley, one of the world's most accomplished balloonists, broke a record that had stood for more than 60 years in February of last year. He set a new record for Duration — or time aloft — for Subclass AA-3, or nonpressurized gas balloons between 400 and 600 cubic meters in size. Bradley's 46-hour, 50-minute flight from Texas to Georgia beat the old mark by 40 minutes.
A group of parachutists broke its own record for Largest Canopy Formation in November of last year in Lake Wales, Fla. Eighty skydivers aligned themselves in a diamond formation with their parachutes deployed — triumphing over a 70-person formation that the same group had made two years earlier.
In June 2005, John Parker broke a mark for piston aircraft in his Thunder Mustang's weight subclass for Speed Over a 15/25 Kilometer Straight Course. He flew at a speed of 376.18 miles per hour, easily besting the previous record, set in 1999, by about 76 mph.
Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann and a team of Boeing pilots expanded the envelope in commercial aviation with the 777-200LR in November, setting a record for Distance Without Landing by flying 13,422 miles from Hong Kong to London. The Boeing pilots and crew shattered the old record for aircraft weighing more than 300,000 kilograms (about 661,000 pounds), set by a Boeing 747 in 1989.
Model aircraft builder and pilot Ken Jennings set a record for Radio Controlled Electric Powered Flight for model helicopters in a flight in West Middlesex, Pa., in October. He flew his model at a speed of 75.32 miles per hour, beating a 2004 record by just under 15 mph.
David Stevenson set a record in ultralight gliders for Three Turnpoint Distance, flying 553.68 miles starting from Jasper, Tenn., in April 2005.
In December 2005, a record was established for rocket engine aircraft by XCOR Aerospace's EZ-Rocket, which set a mark for Distance Without Landing for its class by flying 9.94 miles from Mojave, Calif., to California City, Calif. That flight — piloted by Dick Rutan — was the longest by any ground-launched rocket-powered plane.
During a separate ceremony, Eclipse Aviation Corporation was awarded the 2005 Robert J. Collier Trophy for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America. The trophy was presented for leadership, innovation, and the advancement of general aviation in the production of very light jets, specifically the Eclipse 500, which offers the lowest operating cost per mile of any modern jet.
Hats off to these modern-day American aviation pioneers for their success in pushing the envelope further.
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