The NAHF honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the betterment of aviation. 

Founded 35 years ago, Garmin was one of the first companies to develop a suite of avionics to provide better communication and navigation options. The company is known for its communication and navigation products found in everything from flight school training aircraft up through business jets.

“Gary Burrell and Min Kao founded Garmin with the strong belief that superior navigation and communications products could enrich and even save people’s lives,” Cliff Pemble, Garmin president and CEO, said in a statement. “To truly honor their pioneering work and the foundation they laid for Garmin’s acclaimed products, there is no greater tribute than seeing them inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.”

Kao serves Garmin as executive chairman of the board. Burrell, who died in 2019, was posthumously inducted.

Under their leadership, Garmin developed multiple technologies and applications designed to enhance aviation safety and aircraft capabilities.

A timeline of noteworthy products includes:

• 1991: Garmin’s first aviation product, the GPS 100AVD, is regarded by many as the first panel-mounted GPS navigator accessible to the GA community.
• 1994: The Garmin GPS 155 became the first certified GPS receiver to achieve FAA TSO-C129 Class A certification for instrument approaches. The unit enabled pilots to fly IFR without the use of ground-based navigation aids.
• 1998: The GNS 430 and GNS 530 product family was developed. The mounted GPS navigator, combined with a color moving map, VHF navigation and communication, became the industry standard.
• 2004: G1000-integrated flight deck introduced glass cockpit technology to single-engine piston aircraft widely used in the training market, while also serving the business jet fleet.
• 2010: Garmin introduced its Electronic Stability and Protection System (ESP), the first in a series designed to help pilots avoid loss-of-control accidents.
• 2020: Garmin received the Robert J. Collier Trophy for Garmin Autoland, the first certified autonomous system that when activated during an emergency—such as pilot incapacitation—controls and lands an aircraft without human intervention.

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That would have described the late Eugene Kettering, an engineer, philanthropist, and first chairman of the Air Force Museum Foundation. Kettering went to work at General Motors in 1930 and helped in the development of the modern diesel locomotive. He also built aircraft models on the side, and when he retired in 1960, he and his wife, Virginia, looked for philanthropic endeavors for that outlet—one was the creation of the Air Force Museum.

In 1962 he arranged for a long-term loan of many of his creations to the newly launched Air Force Museum. It evolved into the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, which opened in 1971 in Dayton, Ohio.

About the Models

Kettering’s models, some dating back to the 1930s, spent several decades on public display, most recently in large cases in the hallway connecting the second and third buildings across from the museum’s Berlin Airlift exhibit. “The models on display give visitors a sense of the technological growth of aviation at a glance,” museum officials said.

The Eugene W. Kettering Model Aircraft Collection consists of 624 models, ranging in size from 4 inches to nearly 3 feet in length and including both military and civilian aircraft from 10 countries.

Museum officials realized they could not undertake treatment of the models in-house due to the size of the collection and sought the assistance of the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) in Cleveland.

• READ MORE: The Art of Die-Cast Airplane Collecting

According to museum objects conservator Jennifer Myers, the models are mostly made of wood since they were built at a time when plastic, the modern material, wasn’t available.

“A number of these models are extremely delicate,” said Myers, noting that it’s not unusual to see the adhesives used on these models breaking down over time, resulting in propellers starting to fall off and struts or wheels breaking off, or the detail pieces, such as the wire struts, starting to corrode.

Additionally, some of the models were built with materials considered hazardous today, such as lead paint.

Myers utilized an X-ray fluorescence scanner to read the lead levels. Radiation safety officer Jeremy Gallogly scanned all 624 models and determined they contained no radioactive materials.

• READ MORE: The Timeless Joy of Scale Model Building

“The good thing about going with [an organization] like [ICA] is that they can handle the volume of artifacts in this collection,” said Myers.

The models are one-of-a-kind as most were built from scratch at a time when kits as we know them were few and far between. In 2022 the museum’s Collection Management Division recommended that the models be removed for conservation, as time and light were taking a toll. The models, some small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, have spent several months undergoing cleaning and repair and are soon going to be reinstalled in the museum display cases.

• READ MORE: LEGO Group Gets Aviation Fans’ Attention with Unveiling of Concorde Set

While the models are being cared for, a new display case is being built in Kettering Hall to house the collection. The new case includes humidity-control capabilities and lighting for better preservation.

Museum officials expect the Kettering model collection to be fully installed in the new case by summer 2025. More information on the project can be found here.

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Enlisted airmen and guardians represent about 80 percent of the Department of the Air Force, according to the museum.

• READ MORE: Ever Landed at an Air Force Base? Visit One with a Fly-In Aviation Museum

The new Enlisted Force exhibit, which took more than three years to compile, includes displays of more than 50 elements representing the roles of airmen throughout the Air Force’s 76-year history. On display, for example, are uniforms of airmen from 1918 to 2019 that include a World War I mechanic, World War II public affairs specialist, a Cold War-era police officer, Southeast Asia war flight engineer, aerial gunner from the Persian Gulf War, and HALO parachutist from the Global War on Terrorism.

• READ MORE: National Museum of U.S. Air Force To Add Iconic KC-135 To Collection

“Today’s Space Force is small. It’s just like the museum when it started as an engineering study collection—very small,” said John  Bentivegna, chief master sergeant of the U.S. Space Force. “But guardians are creating our Space Force history each and every day. And 100 years from now, the Enlisted [Force] exhibit in the National Museum of the U.S. Air and Space Force, will be overflowing with that history that we’re making today.”

• READ MORE: NC Aviation Museum Renamed in Honor of Capt. ‘Sully’

According to the museum, exhibits include:

• A display featuring the story of Staff Sergeant James Meredith, one of the first Black airmen to serve in an all-white squadron during WWII.
• An introduction to enlisted maintainers in the areas of aerospace propulsion, electrical systems, and weapons systems who troubleshoot urgent repairs, overhaul complex systems, and closely inspect parts.
• A display featuring a uniform worn by Sergeant Benjamin Fillinger, one of 15 airmen from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base who transferred into the U.S. Space Force in 2020. 
• A display featuring U.S. Air Force band musicians, arrangers, and audio engineers who connect the public to the service through music.

The new exhibit is open to visitors daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST. Admission and parking are free.

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Fast-forward to April 1996, and another stealth-focused design was unveiled to the public with decidedly less fanfare. One look at the aircraft explained why. Rather than portraying a dark, ominous look, like the preceding two types, the Northrop Tacit Blue battlefield surveillance aircraft furrowed eyebrows and evoked more confusion than awe.

With a widely-spaced V-tail, a bulbous fuselage, and a large chine wrapping around the fuselage and giving it a boxy look from above or below, the Tacit Blue looked more bizarre than intimidating. Despite being engineered for low radar observability, this was not immediately apparent at first glance, and it lacked the matte black color of other stealth aircraft. Those working in the program gave it the nickname “Whale” and “Alien School Bus.”

The unconventional look of the Tacit Blue could be explained by the unique approach and constraints undertaken by the design engineers. They followed two requirements. The first was to create an efficient stealth reconnaissance aircraft that could loiter at low speeds near a battle zone while remaining undetected by the enemy. The second was to design the aircraft around a large side looking array radar (SLAR) with which the crew could provide real-time targeting data to a ground command center.

This was rather opposite from the existing convention. Historically, radar systems had been designed to accommodate an individual aircraft’s space and payload restrictions. But in the case of the Tacit Blue, they designed the aircraft around the radar.

This resulted in a unique airframe shape with odd proportions, and correspondingly unique solutions had to be found to make it flyable. The wing, for example, was just over 48 feet in span and utilized the 1930s-era Clark Y airfoil. An airfoil utilized by the Hawker Hurricane and the Spirit of St Louis, this was chosen in part for its efficient low-speed performance that provided good endurance. The aircraft was naturally unstable, however, so Northrop engineers designed a quadruple-redundant digital fly-by-wire flight control system to remedy this.

Two Garrett ATF3-6 turbofan engines—like those used in the Dassault Falcon 20—were selected to power the Tacit Blue. Unlike the Falcon, however, the engines were buried in the aft fuselage, necessitating the use of a single dorsal intake that fed both engines. This complicated certain operational aspects such as engine starting, but it also provided valuable internal space that could be used to cool the engine exhaust, reduce infrared emission, and help keep the aircraft from being detected by the enemy.

With all four flight control computers operating normally, pilots reported excellent flying and control characteristics. Predictably, these characteristics deteriorated as computers failed or were taken off line. Without any of the flight control computers operating, a Northrop vice president described the Tacit Blue as one of the most unstable aircraft ever flown. An engineer likened the stability with one operating computer to that of the notoriously unstable Wright Flyer.

Over a three-year period, test pilots logged approximately 250 hours in the Tacit Blue, validating both the stealth technology incorporated into the airframe as well as the massive SLAR contained inside. The resulting data aided in the development of several weapon systems, including one that evolved into the E-8 Joint STARS radar system. Additionally, multiple stealth characteristics were incorporated into the B-2 Spirit strategic bomber.

Only one Tacit Blue was built. Today, it remains on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

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