The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) has named the class of 2023 for its Sport Aviation Hall of Fame.
The five inductees represent different facets of aviation from aerobatics to vintage. Those set for induction are selected by their peers as recognition for the many contributions they have made to their respective areas of aviation in support of the EAA spirit and community.
The class of 2023 includes Lew Shattuck, the 1978 International Aerobatic Club national champion in the Unlimited category. Shattuck, who flew in regional and national competitions until the age of 85, represents the International Aerobatic Club Hall of Fame.
Neal Loving, a pioneer Black aviator, aerospace engineer, aircraft designer, and homebuilder known for the design of the WR-1 midget racer known as Loving’s Love gets the nod for the EAA Homebuilders Hall of Fame. Built in 1950, the “Love” is constructed of wood and features an inverted gull wing. Loving flew the homebuilt midget racer from Detroit to Kingston, Jamaica, a distance of 2,200 miles. Loving donated the aircraft to the EAA Aviation Museum, where it is now displayed. His induction is posthumous as he died in 1998 at 82.
EAA Ultralights Hall of Fame will be represented by Paul Mather, president of M-Squared Aircraft, creator of the Breese XL ultralight. Mather has more than 40 years of experience in the industry building aircraft now known as light sport and ultralight. In 1996, he founded M-Squared Aircraft with the intention of building an airplane that was both fun and safe.
The Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame is represented by John Parish Sr., the co-founder of the Beechcraft Heritage Museum in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Today, he serves as the museum’s executive committee chairman. The museum began to take shape in 1973 under the Beechcraft Staggerwing Club. It grew and evolved, and in 2007 the Beechcraft Heritage Museum was established to preserve and feature Beechcraft models from 1932 to the present.
The Warbirds of America Hall of Fame will recognize Charles “Chuck” Greenhill, the famed restorer of many warbird aircraft, including the only surviving Grumman J2F-4 Duck that was present at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attack drew the U.S. into World War II.
Among his other projects, Greenhill funded the recovery of a Grumman FM-2 Wildcat from the bottom of Lake Michigan in 2012. The aircraft had been lost in the lake since 1944 when a training exercise went bad. Greenhill moved the waterlogged aircraft to his hangar at Kenosha Regional Airport (KENW) while arrangements were made to transport it to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, for restoration. Greenhill, who died in April 2022 at 87, is being honored posthumously.
This year’s honorees will be officially inducted at a dinner ceremony on November 9 in the Eagle Hangar of the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
