The Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame will enshrine three new members in 2023: Dean Hammond, Roy E. Osborne, and John Charles.
The three will be enshrined Nov. 11, 2023, at a ceremony at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky in Lexington.
Dean Hammond, a successful businessman and aviator with 54 years of flying experience, has flown multiple airplanes and helicopters and has trained current and new pilots as a flight instructor. Hammond also served as chief of aviation for the United States Military Training Mission to Saudi Arabia and has flown governors, secretaries, and commissioners during four administrations.
Roy E. Osborne, an aviation enthusiast and pioneer in Kentucky aviation, was the first Kentucky state trooper to fly for the police and director of airport development. He had over 14,000 hours of flying time and was a tremendous asset to the development of aviation in Kentucky, according to Hall of Fame officials.
John Charles had dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a child. While never getting the chance to go into space, he did work for NASA for a large part of his career, investigating orthostatic intolerance in astronauts, which is caused by insufficient blood pressure in the brain. Charles also worked on the shuttle/Mir program and was a project scientist for several space shuttle missions.
The 2023 Aviation Achievement Award will be presented to Corning Inc. The company’s technologies have been vital to the evolution of the aerospace and defense industry, enabling NASA astronauts to reach new heights safely, telescopes to see deeper into the vast universe, and advanced rovers to study the surface of Mars, officials noted.
The enshrinement ceremony is open to the public, with tickets available starting in September.
More information about the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame is available at AviationKY.org.