Gary Ward Receives Showmanship Award | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.07.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.08.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.09.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-07.10.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.11.25

Mon, May 02, 2022

Gary Ward Receives Showmanship Award

Airshow Career Honored by a Grateful Industry

Gary Ward has won the prestigious airshow honor of being the 2022 recipient of the Bill Barber Award for Showmanship. 

Ward's career has brought him into the aerobatics and airshow fold, getting his start in the USAF as a jet engine mechanic before moving onwards and upwards into Aerospace engineering. After a brief stint at Cessna as a design engineer on the first generation Citation, he moved home to Lincolton, Georgia to work in the family lumber business where he spent the rest of his working career. Out of the industry, but not out of the hobby, Ward obtained a wrecked Pitts S2-B in the mid 90's, rebuilding it with a friend and discovering aerobatics and honing his skills in private. A friend pushed him to get involved and join an airshow, flying his first in North Carolina at age 57 in 1998. 

His trusty S2-B didn't stick around forever as his go-to aircraft, as he quickly built a Giles 202 monoplane which became his show plane for nearly a decade. Then, the all-carbon MX2 made its way into Ward's hands, making him the first performer to put the model to use, leveraging its super lightweight build to do things he said planes "weren't supposed to do". Ward has performed routines throughout North and South America, retiring his career in his 80th year to gathered crowds at Sun 'n Fun 2022. He now flies a more laid-back fleet including a Piper cub, Super Cub, and Robinson R44 (for now). 

The Bill Barber Award for Showmanship arrived on the airshow circuit in 1986, and has stood as an award to recognize those performers or teams that demonstrate great skill and entertainment. World Airshow News magazine, along with the friends and family of the late Bill Barber, act as the presenters every year, though 2022 will be the first award presented since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. The Bill Barber Award for Showmanship will be presented at this year's EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, scheduled for July 25-31, 2022.

FMI: www.airshowmag.com

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Final Report: Aviat A1

Airplane Bounced About 3 Ft Then Touched Back Down And Then, With No Brakes Applied, The Airplane Began Veering To The Left Analysis: The pilot entered the airport traffic pattern >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (07.08.25)

Aero Linx: British Microlight Aircraft Association (BMAA) The primary focus within all aviation activity is SAFETY. In all aspects of our sport SAFETY must come first, whether it b>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Fly Corvair’s Reliable Engine Alternative

From SnF25 (YouTube Edition): William Wynne Builds Practical Aircraft Engines on the Corvair Platform Seeking an affordable alternative to the traditional aircraft engine options, >[...]

ANN FAQ: Contributing To Aero-TV

How To Get A Story On Aero-TV News/Feature Programming How do I submit a story idea or lead to Aero-TV? If you would like to submit a story idea or lead, please contact Jim Campbel>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: CiES Fuel-Quantity and e-Throttle Systems Praised

From 2023 (YouTube Edition): Bridge of CiES CiES Inc. is a Bend, Oregon-based designer and manufacturer of modular embedded aircraft systems and sensors. The company’s fuel-l>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC