Kona International Airport Renamed In Memory Of Ellison Onizuka

Legislation changing the name of Kona International Airport at Keahole, HI to Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport went into effect January 8.

Onizuka was one of the seven crewmembers lost when the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded as it climbed into space in January 1986. He was the first Asian-American and the first person of Japanese ancestry to fly in in space.

Big Island Now reports that the legislation to change the name of the airport was signed by Governor David Ige in July of last year.

According to his NASA bio, Onizuka, who was promoted posthumously to the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, was born June 24, 1946, in Kealakekua, Kona, Hawaii. He was a member of the Society of Flight Test Engineers, the Air Force Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Tau, and the Triangle Fraternity.

Onizuka entered on active duty with the United States Air Force in January 1970 after receiving his commission at the University of Colorado through the 4-year ROTC program as a distinguished military graduate. As an aerospace flight test engineer with the Sacramento Air Logistics Center at McClellan Air Force Base, California, he participated in flight test programs and systems safety engineering for the F-84, F-100, F-105, F-111, EC-121T, T-33, T-39, T-28, and A-1 aircraft. He attended the USAF Test Pilot School from August 1974 to July 1975, receiving formal academic and flying instruction in performance, stability and control, and systems flight testing of aircraft. In July 1975, he was assigned to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, serving on the USAF Test Pilot School staff initially as squadron flight test engineer and later as chief of the engineering support section in the training resources branch. His duties involved instruction of USAF Test Pilot School curriculum courses and management of all flight test modifications to general support fleet aircraft (A-7, A-37, T-38, F-4, T-33, and NKC-135) used by the test pilot school and the flight test center. He has logged more than 1,700 hours flying time.

His first spaceflight was as a Mission Specialist aboard STS 51-C in January of 1985. He was also a Mission Specialist aboard STS 51-L, the Challenger mission that exploded 1 minute 13 seconds after launch.

He had logged a total of 74 hours in space, according to NASA.

(NASA image)

FMI: www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/onizuka.html