Tucker Weeks Join Foundation

Two of aviation’s best known names, air show ace Sean D. Tucker and aircraft collection icon Kermit Weeks, have joined the board of The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation to further its long-standing efforts to better the environment.

Both say they were drawn to the Foundation by its substantial programs within the aviation community to further Charles and Anne Lindbergh’s strong interest in applying technology to solve environmental problems.

“It is a special honor to have individuals with this level of creativity and commitment join with the rest of us on the Lindbergh board at this time of unusual opportunity,” said Lindbergh Chairman and CEO Larry Williams. Weeks, who has been a friend of the Foundation for a number of years, said he was, “looking forward to being associated with such a great group of people supporting a great cause!”

Tucker responded that he, “resonated strongly with the Foundation’s Aviation Green program and wanted to help make a difference in this world.”The Lindbergh Aviation Green program is a forward-looking, multifaceted effort that targets the aviation community.

The Lindbergh Foundation was founded in 1977 by a group of aviation notables that included Neil Armstrong and Jimmy Doolittle to continue the technology and environmental legacy of the Lindberghs.

Since its inception the foundation has built a strong reputation by honoring environmental leadership with its awards and giving more than $3 million in grants to deserving researchers working for breakthroughs that could better the environment and quality of life.

AF Museum Wins Award

The Museum of Aviation at Warner-Robins, Ga. AFB has won the 2010 Air Force Heritage Award for its Ambassadors in Blue ± U. S. Air Force Thunderbirds exhibit.

The 2,286-square-foot exhibit sponsored by the Carl Vinson Memorial chapter of the Air Force Association opened in May 2009 and displays an F-16AFighting Falcon that was a part of the famous flying team from 1982 to 1991.

Museum officials gained the aircraft in February 2008 from Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, where it had been used as a maintenance trainer after being retired from the Thunderbirds team to bring on a newer model of the F-16. Using the aircraft paint facilities at Robins AFB and the technical data supplied by the Thunderbirds members, museum officials repainted the aircraft to its original red-white-and-blue Thunderbirds markings.

Air Force Association officials donatedmore than$17,700 for the supplies and paint to put the Thunderbirds paint scheme on the aircraft, which is an earlier version of the F-16s used by the team today.

“This is the second year in a row we have won this Air Force award,” said Ken Emery, the museum director. “Last year we won it for the 507th PIR/Down to Earth WW II exhibit in the new World War II Hangar. That exhibit and the Thunderbirds exhibit are now two of our most popular.”

Besides the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, the Museum of Aviation is now the only other Air Force museum in the country to have a former Thunderbirds F-16 on display. The exhibit is open free to the public.

For information,visit www.museumofaviation.org or call (478) 923-6600.