DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — Herbert D. Kelleher, a co-founder of Southwest Airlines, is known for entertaining his audiences with jokes. He didn't disappoint the audience Saturday night, July 19, as he was inducted in the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

"I don't have a cell phone. I don't have a personal digital assistant. I don't use a teleprompter. You may wonder why I'm telling you this," Kelleher told a packed chamber at the Aviation Hall's annual enshrinement dinner at the Dayton Convention Center.

"When you see me looking down from time to time, I want you to know that I'm not admiring my crotch. I have some handwritten notes that I'm looking at," Kelleher said to roaring laughter.

Kelleher was part of the Aviation Hall's Class of 2008 that also included a World War II flying ace, an aerobatics competition champion and a naval aviation pioneer.

"The Aviation Hall of Fame enshrines so many of my personal heroes and heroines that it sends chills down my spine to be among them," Kelleher said.

Kelleher, co-founded Southwest Airlines in 1971 and retired as its chairman in May of this year. Inducted with him were Clarence E. Anderson, a retired Air Force colonel who was a World War II triple ace and test pilot; aerobatics pilot and flight instructor Sean D. Tucker; and the late William A. Moffett, who created the organization and infrastructure on which naval aviation was established during World War II.

Tucker, who flew earlier on Saturday as a feature performer at the Vectren Dayton Air Show, said that he eagerly anticipated entering the ranks of aviation honorees.

"When I got done flying today upside down, 10 feet from the ground and 250 mph, I thought 'I'm going to make it. I'm going to be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.'"

Anderson, a former chief of fighter flight test operations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, served two combat tours during World War II escorting bombers above Europe in the P-51 Mustang. He wound up flying 116 combat missions, and was credited with destroying 16 enemy aircraft in the air and one more on the ground.

Anderson, 86, said Saturday that he owes much to people he served with during the war, including friends who were killed.

"Aviation has been a lifetime experience for me. I have a lot of people to thank," Anderson said. "I can't remember a time when I ever didn't want to fly."

Moffett was killed in an airship crash in 1933. His award was accepted by his grandson, William A. Moffett III.

The honorees joined 195 people previously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Wilbur and Orville Wright were the first.