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November 15, 2007

Six to be inducted into R.I. Aviation Hall of Fame

The Rhode Island native who designed and built the first aluminum propeller used in the country will be recognized tomorrow for his accomplishments in the field of aviation.

Victor Pagé, Classical High School class of 1904, also may have designed and built the first airplane to fly in the state. He’ll be inducted tomorrow into the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame at a ceremony at the Varnum Armory in East Greenwich.

Three of the six inductees are still living:

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Philip Conley, a West Warwick native, earned accolades for flying with the Mosquitoes forward air controller unit in Korea, and supervised the development of every major aircraft now flown, including the B-1 bomber.

East Providence native and 1949 graduate of St. Raphael High School in Pawtucket, retired Commander Edward Cunningham had a career that included more than 20,000 flight hours, spanning propeller planes to jet bombers to airliners. He flew many highly classified electronic intelligence missions, where he shadowed and photographed Soviet missiles.

And an Army Air Corpsman who took part in an intense air battle that was documented for an episode of the History Channel’s “Dogfights” television show will round out the living inductees. Lt. George Sutcliffe, US Army, was born in North Providence and graduated from Mt. Pleasant High School in 1940. The Greenville resident is still involved in the insurance business he started after graduating from Bryant College.

For more information, call 401-831-8696.

Click below to read about the additional inductees, who are receiving the recognition posthumously.

Army Air Corps Sgt. Omar Duquette is a Warwick native who joined the Army in 1938. He served as a gunner and mechanic in a five-man crew with the 37th Bomb Squadron. As one of 80 men who volunteered to launch a bomb attack on Tokyo in 1942 known as the Doolittle Raid, Duquette had to bail out on his plane. He survived that mission, but died on another bombing mission six weeks later.

Lastly, Providence native Major Melvin Kimball was a WWII P-40 who graduated from Hope High School in 1935 and University of New Hampshire in 1939. Kimball was one of the pilots sent to attack a Japanese air base in Thailand after Japan attacked a Royal Air Force station in Burma. He earned a Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart and several medals for gallantry. He was also involved in a rescue mission featured in True Comics. Kimball died in East Providence in 2004.

The Hall of Fame will also recognize the men and women of the 1st battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment of the R.I. Army National Guard.

Nationwide in 2005, they were named Outstanding Army National Guard Aviation Unit of the year after flying more than 1,900 mission in Iraq for that year.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 10:29 AM | Permalink

Comments

I was quite surprised that Roland Pepin of Johnston RI was not on your list, he served as flight engineer or navigator on a B25 (or B29) durring WW2 with a very extensive history of bombong missions. He is also noted many times in the book "Wild Blue". He has a very interesting and extensive back ground that surely deserves recognition.

Charles Jaeger | November 15, 2007 1:07 PM link

November 15, 2007

Six to be inducted into R.I. Aviation Hall of Fame

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