Among those honored were Bruce A. Bohannon, an Alvin native; astronaut Bernard A. Harris Jr., who lived in Clear Lake during his time with NASA; Marion P. Jayne; and retired General Mark A. Welsh III.
Bohannon won several races in the 1980s and ’90s in his aircraft that now hangs in the Experimental Aircraft Association Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He built a modified airplane known as the Exxon Flyin’ Tiger, in which Bohannon broke 30 more records through 2005. He went on to own Flyin’ Tiger Flying School in Angleton, Texas.
Harris was born in Temple, Texas, and became an astronaut at Johnson Space Center in 1990. On Feb. 9, 1995, he became the first African American to perform a spacewalk. He logged more than 438 miles and traveled over 7.2 million miles in space across two missions. He has a demonstrated passion for teaching children STEM skills.
The late Jayne has set aviation records on six continents and flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean twice in single-engine planes. Meanwhile, Welsh earned medals for his F-16 combat missions in Desert Storm and eventually became the 20th chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force.
The Texas Aviation Hall of Fame, which recognizes famous aviators who happen to be Texans along with famous Texans who happen to be aviators, began in 1997 with four inductees, one of whom was George H. W. Bush.
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