Charter Pioneer Clay Lacy Among Four 2011 Inductees
From the time he was a young boy growing up in the farmland of
Wichita, Kansas during the Great Depression, veteran pilot and
business aviation pioneer Clay Lacy (pictured) experienced a
natural fascination with flight. He first took to the air at age
eight and began working at a local airport in exchange for flying
time at age 12. He has since spent nearly every day of his life
around airplanes.
This Saturday, November 5, Lacy will return to his hometown to
attend this year’s Kansas Aviation Museum Gala, where he will
be inducted into the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame for his
extraordinary achievements in aviation. The ceremony comes on the
wings of Lacy receiving the National Business Aviation
Association’s Meritorious Service to Aviation
Award—business aviation’s most distinguished
honor—for his lifelong dedication to building the industry
from the ground up. He is also an inductee to the National Aviation
Hall of Fame and the recipient of numerous other prestigious
awards.
Lacy is a world-renowned pilot whose lifetime in aviation has
included experience as an Air Force and airline pilot, fame as a
national air racer, and international success as a director and
videographer specializing in air-to-air sequences for Hollywood
blockbuster movies and television commercials.
In October 1964, Lacy introduced the first business jet to Van
Nuys Airport (VNY), and from 1964 to 1967, he worked as manager of
Learjet sales in 11 western states. In 1968, he established the
first jet charter service west of the Mississippi River, at Van
Nuys Airport near Los Angeles.
Today, Lacy is still owner and chief executive officer of Clay
Lacy Aviation, a full-service aircraft charter and management
company known as the most experienced operator of private jets in
the world. He has flown more than 300 aircraft types, established
twenty-nine world speed records and logged more than 50,000 flight
hours. Known as the “pilot’s pilot,” he has
accumulated more hours flying jet aircraft than anyone on
Earth.
Another Kansas aviator, Ken Collins, a famed SR-71 test pilot,
will also be inducted into the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame during
this year’s gala, Saturday at 1800 at the Hyatt Hotel Grand
Ballroom in downtown Wichita. Aviators Micky Axton and Tex Johnston
will be inducted posthumously.