A tribute to the crews that battled destructive Los Angeles wildfires in January takes center stage at the 22nd Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards. The April 25 event will spotlight both historic achievements and lifesaving missions during a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California.
Actor and pilot John Travolta will host the ceremony, which will include honors for aerial firefighters and the Polaris Dawn spaceflight crew. Morgan Freeman and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, will lead the segment honoring helicopter pilots and other aircrew who flew hundreds of missions during the Los Angeles wildfire emergency response.
The Polaris Dawn crew will receive the inaugural Dr. Buzz Aldrin Space Advancement Award. Commander Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon completed a high-altitude orbital mission and conducted the first private spacewalk while performing scientific experiments.
New inductees into the Living Legends of Aviation include former NASA astronaut and Navy SEAL Christopher Cassidy, veteran astronaut and air racer Robert “Hoot” Gibson, and NBC’s aviation and space correspondent, Tom Costello.
Ron Draper, CEO of Textron Aviation, will receive the Lifetime Aviation Industry Leader Award, and Burt Rutan, designer of Voyager and SpaceShipOne, will receive the Dr. Sam B. Williams Technology Award.
The Eren Ozmen Aviation Entrepreneur of the Year Award will go to Peter Beck, founder of launch company Rocket Lab. Louis Pepper, former CEO of Atlantic Aviation, will receive the Kenn Ricci Lifetime Aviation Entrepreneur award.
Kaye Gitibin, co-founder and CEO of Go Rentals, will be presented with the Aviation Entrepreneur Award. Amanda “Stalin” Lee, the first female demonstration pilot to fly with the Blue Angels’ F/A-18 fighter jet team, will receive the Barron Hilton Aviation Inspiration Award.
The event will also honor four aviation figures who have “flown West:” Richard Rutan, record-setting test pilot who flew the Voyager aircraft around the world with Jeana Yeager in 1986; Roy Morgan, founder of emergency medical transport provider Air Methods; Clarence “Bud” Anderson, World War II triple ace and test pilot; and William “Bill” Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut who captured the iconic “Earthrise” photo.
The Living Legends of Aviation Awards are produced by the Kiddie Hawk Air Academy, a nonprofit that promotes aviation education for children.