Class of 2023 Spans World, War, and Galaxy Alike

William Shatner, Star Trek’s Captain James Tiberius Kirk, award-winning actor, author, philanthropist, and space tourist; Royce Williams, aviator, and Navy Cross recipient; and Robert DeLaurentis, record-setting American aviator; are among the luminaries to be honored at 2023’s International Air & Space Hall of Fame Gala. Additional honorees will be announced as the event nears.

Slated to be held on 21 October at the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Edwin D. McKellar Pavilion of Flight, the gala will see an august assemblage of guests from around the wide world convene for a memorable evening replete with enjoyment, recognition, and intimate looks into the lives of the aforementioned legends of air, space, and screen.

Since 1963, the International Air & Space Hall of Fame has honored the world’s notable pilots, crew-members, visionaries, inventors, aerospace engineers, business leaders, preservationists, designers, and space explorers.

San Diego Air & Space Museum president and CEO Jim Kidrick stated: “We’re exceptionally pleased to honor this exemplary Class of 2023 because these men and women represent a vast range of the ongoing advances in aviation and space exploration.”

Mr. Kidrick added: Achievements in aviation and space, as embodied by the honorees in the prestigious International Air & Space Hall of Fame, directly represent the human pioneering spirit and pursuit of mankind’s final frontiers. This is a can’t-miss event and something every guest will remember for the rest of their lives! Guests come from all over the globe just to be in the room with the Honorees and join in this momentous celebration.”

Over a career spanning upwards of seven-decades, William Shatner has won acclaim as an actor, director, producer, writer, recording artist, and equestrian. He is among Hollywood’s most recognizable figures and a philanthropist of renown. On 13 October 2021, Mr. Shatner, then ninety-years-old, became the most senior person to undertake a space-flight. Shatner slipped Earth’s surly bonds aboard Blue Origin’s NS-18 flight, ascending beyond the Kármán line—the one-hundred-kilometer (330,000-foot) altitude broadly recognized as the upper terminus of Earth’s atmosphere and the boundary of outer space.

In 1966, Shatner originated the role of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, commander of the Starship Enterprise and galactic Casanova extraordinaire. Star Trek—notwithstanding the concerted destructive efforts of J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman—has endured for nearly sixty-years, garnering untold millions of global fans and spawning a multitude of motion pictures, television series, books, video-games, conventions, and even a religion. In the 1980s, Shatner played the titular role in the popular television police drama T.J. Hooker before going on to host Rescue 911, television’s first reality-based series. Shatner won Emmys and his first Golden Globe for his portrayal of eccentric lawyer Denny Crane on both The Practice and Boston Legal. He subsequently received four additional Emmy nominations and numerous Golden Globe and SAG Award nods.

On 18 November 1952, then Lieutenant E. Royce Williams and three fellow Grumman F9F Panther pilots of the USS Oriskany’s VF-781 Fighter Squadron were patrolling the skies over Hoeryong, North Korea when the group encountered seven MiG-15s. Before the opposing factions could engage, mechanical issues forced William’s flight leader and his wingman to return to the Oriskany. Outmanned and piloting what history considers an inferior aircraft to the MiG-15, Williams engaged the seven enemy aircraft for a harrowing 35-minutes, shooting down four of the aggressor MiGs. The engagement remains history’s longest dogfight and a legend among U.S. Naval Aviators. Out of ammunition, Lieutenant Williams limped his badly-damaged F9F back to the Oriskany, landing the aircraft safely on the grand carrier. William’s F9F was later determined to have been struck by no fewer than 263 enemy rounds. Williams is the recipient of the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, and two Distinguished Flying Crosses. High-ranking U.S. Naval officers and multiple members of Congress have campaigned in favor of Williams’s receipt of the Medal of Honor, contending to the one that his historic, single-handed victory against communist aggression deserves nothing less.

Robert DeLaurentis is an American aviator, businessman, and author. Over an interval spanning 17 May through 14 August 2015, DeLaurentis earned the distinction of being the first solo pilot to fly a Piper Malibu Mirage around the world. The odyssey, which covered 26,000 nautical miles and 23 countries in ninety-eight, was undertaken as a fundraising campaign to support aviation programs. On 10 August 2020, DeLaurentis completed a nine-month, 26,000 nautical mile polar circumnavigation and global peace mission ascribed the appositely lengthy appellation One Planet, One People, One Plane: Oneness for Humanity.

The International Air & Space Hall of Fame comprises hundreds of air and space pioneers, engineers, inventors, innovators, adventurers, scientists, and industry leaders. The institution honors NASA Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts and Russian cosmonauts alike, as well as aerospace legends the likes of the Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Neil Armstrong, and Amelia Earhart. Notable inductees include, also: Buzz Aldrin, Chuck Yeager, Igor Sikorsky, Wernher von Braun, Jack Northrop, Jackie Cochran, William Boeing, Sr., Reuben H. Fleet, Glenn Curtiss, Walter Zable Sr., Fran Bera, Wally Schirra, Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, T. Claude Ryan, Jimmy Doolittle, Bob Hoover, Ellen Ochoa, Peggy Whitson, Linden Blue, Jeff Bezos, Patty Wagstaff, and many more.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum is California’s official air and space museum and education center. The Museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, and was the first aero-themed Museum to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The facility is home to the prestigious International Air & Space Hall of Fame.

FMI: https://sandiegoairandspace.org