Warbird Information Exchange

2019 Winners for the "WARBIRDS 20 Under 40" Program Announced!

Recognizing and Promoting the Achievements of the Rising Stars in Warbirds
Recognize the Next Generation of Warbird Contributors under 40 years of age.
Motivate Young Leaders in the Field.
Ensure the Warbird Legacy will Continue for Years to Come.
Reward these Individuals for Their Efforts.

A new program was introduced at the 2019 National Warbird Operators Conference, Warbirds "20 Under 40." Many Warbird owners and operators feel that now is the time to recognize the individuals under 40 years old for their contributions to the Warbird field.

A special thank you to all who took the time to nominate the young "Rising Stars" in Warbirds. The judging panel had to make some tough decisions based on the excellent quality of nominations received. It is wonderful to hear the passion and dedication of a number of young individuals in the Warbird Industry today.

We are proud to announce the first class for the Warbids "20 under 40" Program:
2019 Class (in no particular order)
1) Amelia Hilsen
2) Ben Wilson
3) David Oliver
4) Jason Capra
5) Joel Swager
6) Matt Bongers
7) Michael Porter
8) Nick Crofoot
9) Samuel Walsh
10) Marco Rusconi
11) David Reed
12) Taylor Stevenson
13) Matt Younkin
14) Justin Spence
15) Scott Yoak
16) Tim Wiebe
17) Eric Nielsen
18) Shawn Patrick
19) Shane Clayton
20) Ryan Parente

Congratulations to All Selected For the 2019 Class!
Winners will be recognized at the Warbirds Banquet at Oshkosh AirVenture 2019. Also, due to the generosity of a number of sponsors for the program, all winners will be given an special opportunity: A Warbird introduction flight and an option for some one-on-one maintenance training on a variety of Warbird Aircraft.

For those who may have not been chosen this year, we hope you will continue to nominate these individuals in the futur
A special thank you to our sponsors- We appreciate your commitment!

To get involved and for more information, contact Mark Clark at mark@courtesyaircraft.com

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Mark Clark
Courtesy Aircraft Sales
Rockford IL
www.courtesyaircraft.com

Thanks Mark,

Although I was quite honoured and a bit shocked to get your phone call the other day, now I'm flabbergasted to see who else made the list and privileged to be amongst them.

See you at Oshkosh

Shane Clayton

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What an excellent list! Love seeing all the quality and deserving pilots who are on here. Congrats all!

Are there bios for the winnners that we can read somewhere? Also, any idea how many submissions they started with?

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

Bios will start going out after Oshkosh. We will most likely have some on our website and they will be on http://www.nwoc.aero. There will be a series of releases and everyone will be featured. There were about 35 people nominated this year. They all are winners but we had to stop at 20. Some great and passionate warbird people. Somewhere in the older WIX posts is one about famous warbird people, stay tuned these are the "rising stars" that will be on that list some day.

Mark

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Mark Clark
Courtesy Aircraft Sales
Rockford IL
www.courtesyaircraft.com

Mark, are you going to post/release some of the accomplishments/contributions of the folks you've selected? I'd really like to hear about what they've done.

Thanks for this program, I think it is a great form of stewardship for the warbird community!

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Randy-
Here is the plan. The winners are to be introduced during the Warbirds dinner at Oshkosh on July 27th. So far we have about 10 of the 20 winners that plan to be in attendance. A complete list of the winners has already gone out to the media. After OSH, we are going to start a series of press releases with bios and photos of the winners. I have already been contacted by a number of media that want to do further follow up on the winners. The judges had some tough choices to make as everyone that was nominated was well qualified.

I would like everyone to understand that this program is not just an EAA Warbirds only program. CAF, Redstars, T-34, L-birds, jets or people who not members of any group are eligible. It is open to anyone with passion for warbirds- keeping them in the air, flying them and continuing to tell the story of the important part these aircraft and people played in the freedom we enjoy today. We are operating under the wings(so to speak) of the National Warbird Operators Conference. http://www.nwoc.aero. There will be link on the NWOC website with nomination forms for 2020.

Mark

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Mark Clark
Courtesy Aircraft Sales
Rockford IL
www.courtesyaircraft.com

Superb, thanks!

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