Lindbergh Awards Going To Bertrand Piccard And Yolanda Kakabadse

The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation is celebrating a homecoming this year by holding two very special events in its home state. On Friday evening, May 20, a hangar party entitled, "Legends of the Sky: Stories of History-Making Aircraft and Their Pilots" is planned at the Golden Wings Museum located at the Anoka County Airport in Blaine. This event is part of the Blaine Aviation Weekend and features Burt Rutan, widely known for capturing the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first civilian aircraft to reach space twice in a two-week period. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Lindbergh Foundation, a public non-profit organization based in Anoka, MN.

 
A variety of vintage aircraft from the Golden Age of Aviation will be on display at the hangar party from the personal collection of Greg Herrick, founder of The Aviation Foundation of America. The featured aircraft, however, will be the 1927 Ford Tri-motor 4-AT-10, C-1077. This is the actual plane that was used to fly Charles Lindbergh's mother, Evangeline Lindbergh, to Mexico City to visit her son in December 1927. This is also the first airplane Anne Morrow flew in with Charles.

It has had an illustrious list of pilots in addition to Lindbergh including: Amelia Earhart; Bernt Balchen, first to fly over the South Pole; Floyd Bennett, first to fly over the North Pole; and many others. This plane is the world's oldest all-metal flying airliner, the world's oldest flying multi-engine airliner, made the first commercial trip from the U.S. to Mexico City, and was the first Ford Tri-motor to be put on floats. "I am very happy to be hosting the Lindbergh Foundation's "Legends of the Sky" hangar party at the museum," said Greg Herrick. "I have always admired Charles Lindbergh for his contributions to aviation and I believe strongly in the mission of the Lindbergh Foundation." Music, food, and great aviation stories will be shared during this special occasion. John and Martha King of King Schools, Inc. will be the Masters of Ceremonies.

On Saturday evening, May 21, at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, the Lindbergh Foundation will present its annual honorary Lindbergh Awards to Yolanda Kakabadse, executive president of the Foundation for the Future of Latin America, and Dr. Bertrand Piccard, the first person to fly around the world non-stop in a hot air balloon. "After 20 years of traveling the country with our Lindbergh Award programs, we are delighted to be planning our most important events of the year in our home state," said Lindbergh Foundation President and Chief Operating Officer Marlene K. White.

The Lindbergh Foundation moved its headquarters to Minnesota in 1985 under the leadership of the late Governor Elmer L. Andersen who was serving as volunteer president of the organization at the time. "Charles A. Lindbergh was a great friend to the Minnesota Historical Society," said Nina Archabal, Minnesota Historical Society Director. "He served on our Honorary Council from 1966 until 1974, donated to the Society many of his family's personal papers, and provided a series of letters that he wrote while circling the globe in 1969-1970, which recalled his childhood in Minnesota and were eventually published by the Society as Boyhood on the Upper Mississippi in 1972. So we are especially pleased and honored to be hosting the Lindbergh Foundation's 2005 Annual Lindbergh Award Event at our Society's headquarters, the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul."

The Lindbergh Award event will begin with a reception in the Great Hall overlooking the State Capitol. Erik Lindbergh (above), grandson of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies during the program portion of the evening. Yolanda Kakabadse will be recognized for her lengthy record of coordinating the efforts of international environmental agencies, and for resolving conflicts between industry and environmental concerns throughout Latin America and the world. "We also applaud her focus on clarifying the role of ethics in globalization and on working to emphasize 'being rather than having,'" said Lindbergh Foundation Vice Chairman Kristina Lindbergh.

Dr. Bertrand Piccard will be recognized not only for his historic 'round-the-world flight in a hot-air balloon, and his spirit of adventure (which so closely mirrors that of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh), but for the new perspective on the environment that evolved from that experience. The Lindbergh Foundation is particularly impressed by his recent Solar Impulse project, which aims to promote sustainable development through an entirely solar powered aircraft. Kakabadse and Piccard are both dynamic speakers and each will give a presentation. The evening includes a lovely sit-down dinner in the Great Hall.

One of the Lindbergh Foundation's core values is to honor individual achievement. In doing so, we also honor the Lindberghs who were each outstanding individual contributors to society - through aviation, writing, and the environment," said White. Unquestionably, Charles Lindbergh is best known for his historic New York-to-Paris flight in the Spirit of St. Louis. It is much less known that the Lindberghs held a unique perspective on the Earth stemming from Charles' boyhood growing up on the banks of the Mississippi River outside Little Falls, MN, his barnstorming days in the early 1920s, and the survey flights he and Anne pioneered in the 1930s. Pioneer aviators flew much closer to the ground than we do today, keeping them more in touch with the land. Over the years, the Lindberghs witnessed enormous changes in the land, sky and water in the name of progress.

"The view from the air is a perspective that today's general aviators can appreciate more than anyone," said White.

FMI: www.lindberghfoundation.org, www.discoveraviationdays.org