The Australian Aviation Hall of Fame (AAHOF) announced the five new inductees for 2016 and the winner of the Southern Cross Award last Monday.
The newest inductees to the AAHOF are:
- Lester Brain AO, DFC – distinguished pilot and the first General Manager of Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) who established the airline from 1946. Brain was also the pilot who found the ill-fated Kookaburra during the "Coffee Royal" affair in 1929.
- Macarthur Job – renowned aviation safety journalist and pilot who wrote proficiently for the Aviation Safety Digest and found the wreck of the Kyeema on Mount Dandenong.
- Horatio (Horrie) Miller OBE – test pilot, commercial air operator and co-founder of Western Australia’s MacRobertson-Miller Airlines
- Sir Robert Norman OBE, aviator and businessman who established Bush Pilots Airways in Queensland
- Edgar Percival – test pilot, engineer and designer of the Percival Gull among other aircraft.
Bush Pilots Airways will also receive the Southern Cross Award in recognition of its substantial contribution to aviation safety in Australia.
“These five outstanding individuals and 'Bushies' join 32 other individuals and five organizations in the Hall of Fame," said AAHOF Chairman Steve Padgett.
"All have made quite incredible contributions in their respective fields for the major benefit of Australia, particularly regional and remote Australia."
The inductions will occur at a gala dinner to be held at the Temora Aviation Museum on Saturday 12 November 2016.
*AAHOF is still to contact the families of Lester Brain and Edgar Percival. If anyone has any contact details for descendents of these two, could they please get in touch with AAHOF immediately via the website www.aahof.com.au or rcoulthurst@aahof.com.au.