The International Aerospace Hall of Fame

Inventors, engineers, pilots, and industrialists who created and built airplanes, aircraft and spacecraft are represented within the Museum's International Aerospace Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame contains beautiful oil portraits of each honoree displayed with biographical information and artifacts related to their accomplishments.

Honorees include legends such as Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon; Amelia Earhart, known for transoceanic and transcontinental flight; Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space; Willi Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer and engineer; Charles Lindbergh, the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo; the Wright brothers, responsible for the first controlled, powered human flight; and Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., first black graduate of West Point and Tuskegee airman.

Also included are those distinguished pioneers whose careers are directly associated with the rich aviation history of San Diego. At the helm of Ryan Airline Company, T. Claude Ryan supervised the construction of the Spirit as well as other aircraft that played significant roles in America's aviation history. Aviation pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss introduced hydroplanes to the U.S. Navy in 1911 when he flew his A-1 Triad successfully from the waters of San Diego Bay. Industrialist Reuben H. Fleet formed Consolidated Aircraft in 1923. During World War II the San Diego-based Consolidated built the B-24 Liberator bomber as well as the PBY Catalina.