Ride, Fossett added to Aviation Hall of Fame

DAYTON, Ohio — A record-setting daredevil and the first U.S. woman in space were among five people inducted Saturday to the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Steve Fossett, 63, of Beaver Creek, Colo., holds world records in ballooning and with powered aircraft.

In 2002, he became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. Three years later, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling. He and a co-pilot also claim to have set a world glider altitude record of 50,671 feet during a flight in August over the Andes.

Sally Ride, 56, a California native, became the first U.S. woman in space when she flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. Ride returned to space aboard the Challenger in 1984 and served on the board that investigated the 1986 Challenger accident.

Also among the inductees was Evelyn Bryan Johnson, 97, who took up flying in 1944 while running her husband's laundry business during his World War II military service.

Johnson, of Morristown, Tenn., began giving flying lessons in 1947. Known as Mama Bird to her students, she is recognized for logging more flight hours — 60,000-plus — training more pilots, and giving more FAA exams than any other living pilot.

The others inducted were Frederick Smith, a former Marine pilot and founder of air-freight giant FedEx; and Walter Boyne, historian, author and former director of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum.