This autumn 2024 edition of the FAM14 Newsletter includes exciting updates about the Society’s acquisitions and donations to the SFO Museum, and honoring the 2023 Achievement in Aviation, Edward Trippe.FAM14 Newsletter Fall 2024
Celebrating a Champion in the Sky Sara Nelson is a name that resonates powerfully within the aviation industry. With a career marked by tireless advocacy and trailblazing initiatives, she has become a beacon for flight attendants worldwide. Her recent accolade—the San Francisco Aeronautical Society Achievement in Aviation Award—further solidifies her status as a key figure…
A large crowd gathered at the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum to honor this year’s Achievement in Aviation Award recipient, Sara Nelson. Known for her passionate advocacy and unwavering commitment to workers’ rights, Nelson has become a pivotal figure in steering the aviation industry toward a more equitable future. Her career, which began as a…
The San Francisco Aeronautical Society (SFAS) proudly announces that it has acquired and donated to SFO Museum a collection of vintage airline posters from the 1950s, a period revered for its artistic innovation in commercial aviation art. This donation promises to captivate aviation enthusiasts, history buffs, and art collectors alike. At its heart, this blog…
The Society will be holding its annual gala and fund raising event themed Salute the Crew, Celebrating the Flight Attendant on Thursday November 7, 2024. The evening will recognize the key role flight attendants have played in commercial aviation history in protecting and promoting aviation safety and in being the face of the aviation industry…
Pan Am admirers gathered at SFO’s Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum for a special screening of the iconic airline’s historical film collection and a chance to meet Edward Trippe, recent recipient of the SFA Achievement in Aviation award, chairman of The Pan Am Historical Foundation and the son of Juan Trippe, founder of Pan Am.…
We had the pleasure of getting to know Ed Trippe, chairman of The Pan Am Historical Foundation and the son of Juan Trippe, founder of Pan Am. Trippe is a very humble man who enjoys sharing stories of what it was like to grow up with the great aviation pioneer.” I was just a normal…
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2023 A large crowd of aviation enthusiasts gathered at the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum at SFO to honor this year’s Achievement in Aviation Award recipient Edward Trippe, chairman of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and son of Pan Am founder Juan T. Trippe. This year’s award was presented to Trippe by…
A new SFO Museum exhibit presents the legacy of first-generation SSTs through aircraft models, photographs and airline flight attendant uniforms just to name a few. Let’s begin with Concorde. The world’s first passenger plane to fly at supersonic speed, made history after its prototype debut in 1969 and again in 1976 when its first passengers…
The San Francisco Aeronautical Society would like to thank all of its sponsors and other attendees for their incredible support in making this year’s gala so memorable. After a two year break, it was great to see so many familiar faces as well as new ones. Over 100 people gathered at the re-opening of the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum and to honor William R. Hearst…
The San Francisco Aeronautical Society wishes to thank everyone who joined us for this memorable event and a special thank you goes to Captain Sully Sullenberger. Nearly 100 people waited in line inside of the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum at SFO to meet Capt. Sullenberger and many had their books signed before watching the…
The San Francisco Aeronautical Society is proud to announce that it recently acquired a diverse and varied collection of TWA (Trans World Airlines) memorabilia that it donated to the SFO Museum. The items come from the TWA Museum located in Kansas City, Missouri http://www.twamuseum.com/. These two museums have had a long partnership in exhibitions and…
It is with heavy hearts that we accept the news that our mentor, friend, and namesake of the Museum and Library, Louis A Turpen, has transitioned to the next life. We are so grateful that he spent decades sharing his passion and vision for aviation and enriching all our own lives. John Martin reflects “I…
The San Francisco Aeronautical Society is excited to announce that one of its Board Members, Angela Gittens, was awarded the Airport Council International North America (ACI-NA) prestigious William E. Downes Jr. Memorial Award on Monday November 08, 2021. The award is named after the first commissioner of aviation for the City of Chicago from 1959…
By: Megan Callan, Assistant Director, Museum Affairs and Gabriel Phung, Aviation Museum & Library Manager | SFO Museum SFO Museum is excited to report on changes underway at the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum (AML), which, after a prolonged closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remains closed. However,…
Aviation is extraordinary! Whether it is general aviation, commercial aviation, military aviation, it is all tremendously challenging and rewarding. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been surrounded by aviation since birth. My mother was a flight attendant for American Airlines, her father was a military pilot that flew in WWII, the Korean war and…
In the fall of 2020, the San Francisco Aeronautical Society aquired and gifted to the SFO Museum, eleven model airplanes that represent nearly fifty years of aircraft development between the mid-1920s and early-1970s. The making of scale aircraft models was an important part of the design, manufacturing, and marketing process for both airlines and aircraft…
This video was produced by SFO Museum in partnership with the San Francisco Aeronautical Society. It documents SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel in conversations with author and former SFO Museum Assistant Director John H. Hill about his recently published book, Pan Am at War: How the Airline Secretly Helped America Fight World War II. This conversation…
Paying tribute and presenting the Achievement in Aviation Award to Louis A. Turpen as the founding President of the Society and his outstanding contributions in the field of aviation, as well as his passion and dedication to preserving the history of aviation View Gallery
The San Francisco Aeronautical Society is proud to announce the acquisition and donation to SFO Museum of a collection of commercial airline insignia spanning nearly seventy years of commercial aviation, from the 1920s to the 1990s. Recognized the world over as emblems of the intrepid aviator, these unique and individualized insignia have served to identify…
Celebrating and paying tribute to the hard-working women and men of the commercial air transport industry, and the presentation of the Achievement in Aviation Award to Captain Chelsey B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III, for his exemplary career and accomplishments in aviation View Gallery
The celebration of the airplane as a thing of beauty, and the continuum of aeronautical engineering, design, and influence for over one hundred years was celebrated including the Jim Lund 1:72 Scale Model Airplane Collection. In addition, John Travolta received the Achievement in Aviation Medallion in recognition of his personal involvement and dedication to aviation…
Celebrating the history of airline uniforms which for over 85 years has been designed to signify a distinct role in the workplace, project the identity of their employer, and reflect the prevailing fashion of the times. The Society awarded Mary Wells Lawrence with the Achievement in Aviation Award for her radical change to the look…
An exciting evening of aviation history, celebrating the remarkable growth of commercial aviation within California during the decades of the 1950s through 1980s as well as presenting Tony Bill with the Achievement in Aviation Award for his personal and professional involvement in aviation and his outstanding commitment to preserving its history. View Gallery
From myth to the moon, and from the power of the imagination to reality, the courage and tenacity of those who dared to dream and make them a reality are honored. Special feature was presenting Captain Moon F. Chin the Achievement in Aviation Award for his career as a pilot, airline executive and owner, as…
A stunning celebration of the airport’s vision from a municipal airport with a dirt airstrip at Mills Field in the 1920s through burgeoning Jet Age in the 1950s, to the Master Plans that prepared the airport for a new millennium in the 1990s, and the transformations enabling SFO for the future of air and space…
The Society proudly celebrated the 85th anniversary of the San Francisco International Airport. The first ten years of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) were filled with challenges and successes. Like the commercial aviation business, the development of airports evolved slowly from modest beginnings. The commitment made by the City and County of San Francisco to…
Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the beginning of regular transoceanic commercial air travel with the start of passenger flights on October 21, 1936. Barely more than three decades after the Wright brothers’ success at Kitty Hawk, Pan American Airways inaugurated the world’s first scheduled transoceanic air route with its famous China Clipper flying boats. …
