Tuskegee Airmen honored by NBAA
October 23, 2012, 02:47 pm
The National Business Aviation Association recently awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the 2012 Meritorious Service to Aviation, the association's highest reward.
“We are honored to present this award to these storied aviators, who in a time of great peril defended the United States and its principles, even as they faced intolerance at home,” said Ed Bolen NBAA president and CEO.
The Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 1,500 combat missions from June 1943 through April 1945.
They also received recognition at the Experimental Aviation Administrations AirVenture when Ford built a one-of-a-ind Red Tails edition 2013 Mustang that sold for $370,000 at the Gathering of Eagles charity auction.
The auction brings in more than 1,000 aviation fans in support of the Young Eagles each year to inspire them to become engineers, astronauts, scientists, innovators and aviation pilots.
The Young Eagles have given introductory flight training to more than 1.6 million young people since 1992, and the proceeds from the auction all go toward helping inspire fans of aviation.This year's auction raised nearly $3 million.
Ford made a Mustang AV8R for the 2008 auction that currently holds the auction record of $500,000. Ford sold an AV-X10 Mustang at the 2009 auction to honor those who flew during World War II, and in 2010 it built the SR-71 Blackbird Mustang in honor of Carroll Shelby, an Air Force flight instructor, and Jack Roush, a P-51 pilot. Last year, Ford featured the Blue Angels Mustang.
“The perseverance and excellence displayed by the Tuskegee Airmen are qualities we also celebrate at Ford,” said Edsel Ford, a member of Ford’s board of directors. “With this year’s beautiful ‘Red Tails’ Mustang, we’ve captured the recognizable symbols in honor of their important role in our history and paired it with the innovation our Ford design and engineering teams build into all of our products. Through this project, we take great pride in continuing our support for EAA and the Young Eagles organization.”
The Red Tail model sold at this year's auction was 5.0 liter Mustang GT and with a red tail and school bus yellow-accented paint job. The seats were embroidered with the Red Tail logo and the floor mats were embroidered with the 332nd Fighter Group logo. The car, unlike other Mustangs, has 624 horsepower and has a 2.3-liter twin screw Whipple supercharger, Ford Racing handling kit, unique side performance quad exhaust, Forgiato wheels, and GT500 Brembo brakes and diffuser.
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