Three to Join Aerospace Hall of Fame

Three men will be inducted this fall into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame in Balboa Park.

Reginald J. Mitchell (1895-1927), Jacob Ellehammer (1871-1946) and Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith (1897-1935) will be inducted at a ceremony Oct. 11 at the Sheraton Harbor Island East hotel, Hall of Fame Executive Director John Roche said.

Mitchell designed the Supermarine Spitfire, the fighter plane that was instrumental in England’s survival in World War II’s Battle of Britain.

Ellehammer was an inventor and aviation pioneer who first flew in 1904, less than a year after the Wright brothers’ flight. He is recognized as one of the early leaders in European aviation.

Kingsford-Smith was the first to fly from the United States across the Pacific to Australia, in 1928. He helped establish air routes from Europe and North America to Australia and set many speed and distance records.

Retired Navy Capt. Walter M. Schirra from the original Mercury space program will be master of ceremonies.

There are 85 members of the Hall of Fame. As many as five and as few as two have been inducted annually since it opened in 1963.