William Shatner to be honored at Living Legends of Aviation Awards

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Actor William Shatner, who is a private pilot and the oldest person to travel to space, will be honored at the 20th Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards. Photo courtesy of Kiddie Hawk Air Academy
Jan. 17 (UPI) — Actor William Shatner, who is the oldest person to ever travel to space, will be honored at the 20th Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards on Friday. Shatner, 91, will receive the “Aviation Inspiration and Patriotism Award” for his contribution to aviation and aerospace. The Canadian actor, who is a private pilot, made history on Oct. 13 as the oldest living person to travel to space when he flew aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space module. Advertisement
Shatner, who is best known for portraying Capt. James T. Kirk in the 1960s television series Star Trek, was aboard the New Shepard rocket for the 11-minute ride from launch to descent at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One about 160 miles east of El Paso.
“Everyone needs to see … the blue down there, and the black up there. It was so moving to me,” Shatner said after he landed. “I’m so emotional about what just happened.”
The Living Legends of Aviation honors “remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation and aerospace; they include entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, astronauts, record breakers, pilots who have become celebrities and celebrities who have become pilots,” according to the nonprofit Kiddie Hawk Air Academy, which is producing the event.
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Actor John Travolta, who is also a private pilot, will host Friday’s awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., as the Official Ambassador of Aviation.
Other honorees at Friday’s ceremony will include Mike Silvestro, chief executive officer of Flexjet; Tim Ellis, the founder of Relativity Space and Belgium’s Mack Rutherford, who is the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world after he completed a 30,000-mile flight last year at the age of 17.
In addition to being an actor and a pilot, Shatner is a recording artist who recently revealed that environmentalism has become the culmination of his life’s work.
In October, Shatner described a song he co-wrote, after going to space, and the lyrics which include “What can we do about our Earth?”
“It becomes the rallying cry to save the Earth,” said Shatner. “That’s what I think my calling is from here on in.”