From bluegrass to blue skies: A look at Kentucky’s rich aviation history

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO/Gray News) - National Aviation Day is an annual holiday that’s been around since 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt first signed a presidential proclamation making Orville Wright’s birthday the official day on which Americans celebrate the massive accomplishment of flight.

History was made on Dec. 17, 1903, in North Carolina when the Wright Brothers famously took their flying machine to the sky for the first time.

While millions of flights have taken place since that fateful day, many pilots from Kentucky have cemented their names in the history books.

Their stories are told at the Aviation Heritage Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

“National Aviation Day has always been a reminder for us to look up at the skies, to take a look around you and see the impact of aviation on our lives,” said Aviation Heritage Park & Museum executive director Bob Bubnis. “Willa Brown, for example, was the first African-American woman to get her commercial pilot’s license, and she was also the first one to get her mechanic’s license. She was one of those unstoppable people. Back in the day, when segregation kept Black and white pilots from training in the same facilities, she and her husband started the first African-American-owned flight school for those pilots, and those pilots would later go on to become the very famous Tuskegee Airmen. These were the people you wanted to escort you because they were so good, and so she impacted the war by helping to train those people.”

Another Kentucky pilot, John Magda, made his mark on history when he became an ace during his time flying during World War II.

“To be an ace, you have to shoot down five enemy aircraft,” Bubnis said. “You stop and think about what that was like back in the day, right? Up in the skies in this relatively new technology, doing these dogfights and taking down fighter aircraft. He would also become the head of the Blue Angels. He later served in the Korean War as well, and they actually pulled the Blue Angels out of their tour cycle and put them to work. They had to go to battle, and we ended up losing Johnny in the Korean War.”

Kentucky pilots have continued to make history throughout the years, including General Steve Basham, who is on the board at the Aviation Heritage Park and often gives people their first taste of becoming a pilot by coaching them through their flight simulators.

Before that, he was a pilot for the military.

“In 1999, he flew the first combat mission of the B-2 bomber, and this is that beautiful stealth triangular aircraft that doesn’t even look like it could fly. He flew that at super high altitudes, completely stealth, undetected by anyone,” Bubnis said.

The Aviation Heritage Park has collected the stories of many more pilots over the years, from Colonel Terry Wilcutt, who flew space shuttles for NASA, to Brigadier General Dan Cherry, who was a fighter pilot and is known as the man behind the park itself.

“We hope it inspires people to think about how blessed we are to have this, the aviation industry in general, to have our military protecting us, to have the ability to close gaps all around the world, to do whatever we want, to go see our kids, to go visit other countries,” Bubnis said. “It’s all within our grasp, and it all started when Orville Wright flew that aircraft for 12 seconds and 120 feet. And look what’s happened since.”

Now the Aviation Heritage Park stands as a monument honoring the history of Kentucky pilots, and acts as an inspiration to children who may grow up and eventually take to the skies themselves.

The park and museum will be celebrating the holiday through Aug. 23.