Aviators from Hawaii

Robin Olds (July 14, 1922 – June 14, 2007) was an American fighter pilot and general officer in the United States Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 17 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War. He retired in 1973 as a brigadier general, after 30 years of service.

Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human space program of the United States. Cooper learned to fly as a child, and after service in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, he was commissioned into the United States Air Force in 1949. After service as a fighter pilot, he qualified as a test pilot in 1956, and was selected as an astronaut in 1959.

Ellison Shoji Onizuka (エリソン・ショージ・オニヅカ, 鬼塚 承次, Onizuka Shōji, June 24, 1946 – January 28, 1986) was an American astronaut and engineer from Kealakekua, Hawaii, who successfully flew into space with the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-C. He died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, on which he was serving as Mission Specialist for mission STS-51-L. He was the first Asian American and the first person of Japanese ancestry to reach space.

Hiram Bingham III (November 19, 1875 – June 6, 1956) was an American academic, explorer, and politician. He made public the existence of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in 1911 with the guidance of local indigenous farmers. Later, Bingham served as Governor of Connecticut for a single day, the shortest term in history, and then as a member of the United States Senate.

Brigadier General Darr Hayes Alkire (1903-1977) was a pilot for the United States Army Air Service, United States Army Air Corps, the United States Army Air Forces, and the United States Air Force. He was the senior officer in command of the West Compound at Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp after being shot down and captured in 1944.

Major Harold Geiger (October 7, 1884 – May 17, 1927) was US military aviator number 6, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1927. He was also a balloonist. Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory.

Charles J. "Charlie" Fern (June 20, 1892 – March 29, 1995), a barnstorming Hawaii aviator and newspaper pioneer, was a University of California, Berkeley graduate and a World War I pilot. Fern lived to be 102.

Tom Tak Gunn was the first Chinese-American pilot in the United States graduating from the Curtiss School of Aviation class of 1911 and earned pilot's license no. 131 on June 19, 1912. He popularized passenger flight in Hawaii and became the head of the Chinese air force.

Stanley Carmichael Kennedy Sr. (July 7, 1890 – April 19, 1968) was a US Naval Aviator during World War I, world record holder and Silver Star recipient, pioneer of commercial aviation in the Hawaiian Islands, and founder of Hawaiian Airlines, one of the world's oldest operating airlines. Kennedy ran Hawaiian Airlines from the time of its incorporation in 1929 until he stepped down from daily operations in 1955. He remained Chairman of the Board until his death in 1968.

Charles Irving "Sam" Elliott (1892–1972) was a pioneer aviator in the Hawaiian Islands. As an airline pilot, he is credited with the first scheduled passenger flight between the Hawaiian Islands, the first scheduled airmail flight between the Hawaiian Islands, and the first scheduled cargo flight in the US/Hawaiian Islands.