Celebrating the legacy of R. A. “Bob” Hoover

This year’s Hoover Trophy Award Winner

It is our sincere honor to continue furthering Bob Hoover’s legacy by awarding the 2024 Hoover Trophy Award to Jarred Isaacman.  Jared Isaacman has enjoyed an aviation life that most of us can only dream of, and in living it, he has used flying to help better the lives of those in need. The founder and CEO of a transformational financial services company, Isaacman has found his true calling in aviation and aerospace, with a mission to inspire the next generation of aviators. Since soloing in a Cessna 182, he has flown and owned an extraordinary spectrum of aircraft, from pistons to turbines to military jets.

An apex of Isaacman’s aviation life, and fulfillment of a childhood dream, came in September 2021 when he commanded the SpaceX Inspiration 4 mission to orbit, the first private all-civilian spaceflight. In the spirit of giving back, the mission raised $250 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, to which Isaacman pledged $100 million. In September 2024, Isaacman commanded the Polaris Dawn mission, which used a SpaceX rocket to propel him and his crew to the highest orbit since the Apollo program. During that mission, he and the crew conducted the first-ever private space walk and completed a host of additional experiments that will be useful to NASA as it prepares to return humans to the moon. Among them was testing a Starlink laser-based communications system in space, providing valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond. 

Issacman also put his name in the aviation record book in April 2009, when he set a milestone for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe in a light jet, breaking the previous world record by more than 20 hours. True to his philanthropic spirit of using flight to raise money for charitable causes, the mission benefited the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

A Living Legend of Aviation, Isaacman also founded Draken International, building it into the world’s largest civilian-owned collection of military surplus fighters. Those aircraft are flown by a staff of military veterans and provide active-duty fighter pilots a chance to hone their skills for future combat.

Richard G. McSpadden General Aviation Safety Award

Dan Schwinn, founder of Avidyne, is being honored with the 2025 Richard G. McSpadden General Aviation Safety Award for his profound contributions to aviation safety and modernization. In 1994, Dan founded Avidyne with a vision to bring advanced technology into the cockpit, enhancing pilots' safety. Avidyne's groundbreaking certification of Primary and Multifunction Flight Displays in the 1990s revolutionized general aviation. In 1999, he introduced a large-screen color moving map with the Cirrus SR20, giving pilots real-time situational awareness and paving the way for in-cockpit weather, traffic displays, and other critical features. Dan’s innovations have greatly improved pilot safety and navigation, earning him this prestigious award.

Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Aviation Inspiration Award

From being told he couldn’t pursue his passion to circumnavigating the globe in a Bonanza, Shinji Maeda’s aviation story is an inspiring one.  The native of Japan suffered an eye injury from a car accident as a teenager. Not only did doctors give him a 50/50 chance of survival after the accident that caused him to lose vision in his right eye, Maeda learned that regulations in Japan prevented him from pursuing flight training in his home country.

The idea for his lifelong “mission possible” mantra began with encouragement from Maeda’s father to emigrate to the United States and pursue an aviation science degree at Embry-Riddle. He earned a private pilot certificate, an instrument rating, and a commercial pilot certificate, and became a certificated flight instructor.

On June 11, 2021, Shinji touched down at Washington’s Harvey Field and completed his 18-country, 22,000-nm earth-rounder mission flight.

Shinji’s inspiration has gone far beyond his own flight. In 2015, he founded the nonprofit Aero Zypangu Project, encouraging young people to challenge themselves, overcome obstacles, and seize the skies. The program allows youth to explore aviation as a valuable skill, recognizing that flying is a good skill for those considering science, technology, engineering, or math careers.

AOPA was founded 85 years ago with one simple mission “Protect the Freedom to Fly”

No one embodies that spirit more than the late R. A. “Bob” Hoover.  A true pioneer.  Bob inspired so many with his passion for flight, unbelievable skills, his humility and an anwavering commitment to the aviation community.

The first Bob Hoover Trophy was presented to Bob himself.  In 2016 during the unveiling of the statue in his likeness at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center.

Bob agreed to have his name forever memorialized as a tribute to aviators whose airmanship, leadership, mentorship, and passion for aviation inspire a love of flight in others.  AOPA has been entrusted with carrying on his legacy through this annual award. 

In the words of Bob, “The most important thing any aviator can do is to encourage others to want to fly.”

This is one of the reasons why all of us here at AOPA share Bob’s passion, and a big reason we started AOPA’s You Can Fly initiative.

Sean D. Tucker was awarded the Bob Hoover Trophy in 2017, followed by Harrison Ford, Clay Lacy, Burt Rutan, Wally Funk and Senator James M. Inhofe.

Also in 2021, the late Brigadier General Charles McGee presented the Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Aviation Inspiration Award to Legacy Flight Academy founder Kenyatta Ruffin.  In 2023 the award was presented to Ramone Hemphill. 

Other awards presented during this special evening are the Hartranft Award named after AOPA’s first president and former chairman of the board “Doc” Hartranft.  It is given annually to elected or appointed government officials for their significant contributions to the advancement of GA.  It was presented in 2017 to Congressman Todd Rokita (IN), in 2018 to Congressman Ralph Abraham (LA) and Congressman Steve Russell (OK).  To Sen. Jerry Moran (KS) in 2019, to Sen Tammy Duckworth (IL) in 2020; to U.S. Representative Rick Larsen in 2022; and to Peter Defazio in 2023.

The Sharples Award named for AOPA’s first chairman of the board, Laurence P. Sharples, is given to those who may not work directly in aviation but who have made extraordinary contributions to GA.  It was presented in 2017 to Pat Hartness; 2018 to Ron Dearborn, AOPA Airport Support Network Volunteer; in 2019 to Hawaii State Sen. Kai Kahele; in 2020 David DeVries, President and Founder of the Out-Of-The-Blue Scholarship Foundation and Dewey Davenport and Tony Restaino in 2021 and 2022.  Mike Dale received the award in 2023.

In addition, the AOPA Air Safety Institute believes that knowledgeable people, well-trained and proficient in their craft, and operating reliable equipment in a culture that promotes sound aeronautical decision making, will achieve strong safety performance.  It recognizes individuals and organizations that have made extraordinary safety enhancements for general aviation.

We established the AOPA Air Safety Institute’s General Aviation Safety Award to honor those that have delivered exceptional safety performance and innovations.  This award was first presented to Dick VanGrunsven of Van’s Aircraft in 2018; in 2019 to Tyson Weihs and Jason Miller of Foreflight; to Boris Popov, Founder BRS Aerospace in 2020, and Garmin in 2022.  The National Association of Air Traffic Controllers were awarded in 2023.