AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019 - 61

"DO WHAT YOU LOVE, AND YOU'LL NEVER WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE" must be the
mantra of these eight aviation greats whom AOPA members chose in an online survey as
the most inspirational figures in general aviation.

JOHN AND MARTHA KING. In 1975 John and

Martha King set out to be entrepreneurs, hoping
to launch a successful business. Until the business
concept came to them, however, they supported
themselves as flight instructors. Their combined
down-to-earth and humorous teaching methods
eventually led the pair to create books and videos to
advance flight training, and their search for a business
concept was over-they were the business. Each holds
every category and class of FAA pilot and instructor
certificates, and they have flown in every continent
in the world except Antarctica. Their timeless teaching methods and obvious love of aviation-and each
other-are general aviation's greatest love story.

PAUL
POBEREZNY. A

BILL LEAR. If you're considered a "real Horatio Alger" you're

ELREY JEPPESEN.

His "little black book"
contained more information than any scandalous
version-on each flight
he undertook in his role
as an airmail pilot, Elrey
Jeppesen would write
down detailed notes
about his routes in a small,
10-cent black notebook.
Other pilots soon learned of Jeppesen's notetaking and so, for $10, he would sell his information.
He and his wife, Nadine, created the books of route
information in their Salt Lake City home's basement. During World War II, Jeppesen sold charts to
the U.S. Army and Navy, and to the airlines, starting with United. Jepp charts have been used by
more pilots across the globe than any other chart
manufacturer in the world and are now available
electronically. The terminal at Denver International
Airport is named for Elrey Borge Jeppesen.

an individual who has succeeded despite hardship and adversity, who knows the importance of hard work and perseverance,
and who dreams big with a small cash flow. That was Bill Lear,
who won the Horatio Alger Award in 1954 after building batteries, amplifiers, radio coils, circuits for radios in automobiles,
8-track tape players, radio direction finders, autopilots, and so
much more. Self-taught, Lear was a prolific inventor for aviation. In addition to autopilots, he also built the first automatic
landing system, developed panel-mount radios in GA aircraft,
invinted the Motorola car radio and manufactured the first massproduced business
jet-the Lear 23.

www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 61

COURTESY EAA

Waco glider in disrepair, a set of aircraft
and flight manuals, and $67 are what
started what we now
know as EAA-the
Experimental Aircraft
Association-and the
world's largest aviation
party, EAA AirVenture
(Oshkosh or simply
OSH). Paul Poberezny
was a teenager in
Wisconsin when his
history teacher gave
him his first opportunity to restore and fly
an aircraft, and that
started his course on homebuilt aircraft for everyone. He
shared aviation and flying over the course of his lifetime,
designing aircraft, starting EAA in 1953, developing the fly-in
convention, encouraging grassroots aviation, and flying his
F-51D Mustang Paul 1 in airshow routines. AirVenture is now
the largest fly-in event in the world welcoming more than
600,000 to its week-long summer party.

http://www.aopa.org/pilot

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019

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