![Transcription Center logo](/themes/custom/tc_theme/assets/image/logo.png)
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
-56- nor did he have an opportunity to practice the event. Nonetheless, he navigated directly to the ship and made a successful landing on the first pass. His co-pilot, Jay Coburn, is a highly respected professional who brought a wealth of experience to the planning and execution of this milestone flight. In the field of air and space, certain events--the first flight across the ocean, the first flight around the world, the first landing on the moon, the first flight of a helicopter around the world--are inevitably a union of technical achievement and the human spirit. In every case, at the first moment when the technical possibility was first realizable, brave pioneers stepped forward to be the first. Thus it was with H. Ross Perot, Jr., and Jay Coburn, whose brilliant planning and pilotage combined with the technical excellence of the "Spirit of Texas" for this record setting flight. The Langley Medal, named in honor of the third Secretary of the Smithsonian, is given by the Institution "to encourage aviation" by recognizing contributions to aeronautics and astronautics both through original research and significant accomplishments. Previous awardees have been: 1909 Wilbur Wright Orville Wright 1913 Glenn H. Curtiss Gustave Eiffel 1927 Col. Charles A. Lindbergh 1929 Adm. Richard E. Byrd Charles Manly 1935 Dr. Joseph S. Ames, NACA 1955 Dr. Jerome C. Hunsaker, NACA 1960 Dr. Robert H. Goddard 1962 Dr. Hugh L. Dryden 1964 Comdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN 1967 Dr. Wernher von Braun 1971 Lt. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips, USAF 1976 James E. Webb Grover Loening 1981 Stark Draper R. T. Jones