Presenting the awards during the ceremony at Dayton Convention Center are former Apollo program astronauts Neil Armstrong and Frank Borman, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and retired Gen. Richard A. Cody, former Army vice chief of staff.
A nationwide voting body of about 120 air and space professionals selects the annual enshrinees.
On Friday night, the aviation hall honored the Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team with the annual Milton Caniff “Spirit of Flight” Award for 65 years of serving as role models and goodwill ambassadors for the Navy and Marine Corps.
Approximately 450 tickets were sold for Friday night’s ceremony and more than 600 for tonight’s enshrinement event, slightly lower than last year’s totals, said Ron Kaplan, the hall’s enshrinement director.
The nonprofit organization, founded in Dayton in 1962 and chartered by Congress in 1964, depends on membership revenues and donations.
Corporate sponsors for this weekend’s events include FedEx Corp., GE Aviation and Rolls-Royce North America, National Business Aviation Association, Southwest and United airlines and local employers Dayton International Airport, Booz Allen Hamilton, Vectren Corp., the Montgomery County and Greene County convention and visitors bureaus and Mathile Enterprise, affiliated with the family of entrepreneur Clayton Mathile.
The enshrinement event typically costs close to $300,000 to produce, as the biggest chunk of the aviation hall’s approximately $500,000 annual operating budget. The organization is in the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
About the Author