Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame

Contact:

Frank Lennon (401) 831-8696

Two honorees are still living:

Eugene Bielecki: Born in Pawtucket in 1927, Gene now lives in Esmond. He is a founding member and past president of the Rhode Island Pilots Association. In his piloting career he has logged well over 30,000 flight hours, including more than 15,000 hours as a Flight Instructor. He holds a number of single and multi-engine private and commercial ratings (both pilot and instructor), including seaplane and glider ratings. At 81, he is still flying as an FAA flight instructor and as an FAA designated pilot examiner. Bitten early by the flying bug, Bielecki recalls writing an essay on flying in the fourth grade—even though he had never seen an airplane. After graduating from Central Falls HS, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and was a radio instructor at Fort Benning when the war ended. The military mustered out most of its pilots, leaving general aviation as the only avenue for a young man who wanted to fly. He soloed in Columbus, Georgia, in 1946. He returned to RI, and worked at Skylanes Inc. and Lippet Aviation before becoming chief flight Instructor and VP of North Central Airways, where he worked for 25 years. Gene was an early and active proponent of the FAA Wings program, encouraging general aviation pilots to continue flight training and attend safety seminars throughout their flying lives. Gene was selected as FAA Flight Instructor of the Year In 1981 and 1984, and in 1984, 1993 and 1999 he was named Aviation Safety Counselor of the Year. In 1995 he received an AOPA Presidential Citation. Aero Club of New England awarded him its Presidential Medal for lifelong aviation achievement in 2003.

Kenneth Brown: Ken, a Providence native who now lives in Pawtucket, has been an aviator for more than 60 of his 83 years. Born in 1925, he joined the Navy in early 1943 shortly after graduation from Tolman HS. He saw action in the Mediterranean, European, China-Burma-India and Pacific theaters, serving as a Gunner's Mate on LSTs. He participated in both the Sicilian and Normandy invasions, making numerous trips across the English Channel on and after D-Day ferrying British soldiers to Sword & Gold Beaches. Brown took flying lessons shortly after his discharge, and he's been flying ever since. In 1957, he joined the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller. He also became a flight Instructor, then an Instrument Instructor, obtained his Multi-Engine and ATP ratings, and also taught aerobatics. After more than 20 years as an Air Traffic Controller (with his last assignment at T. F. Green), he was promoted to the FAA Regional Office in Norwood, MA as an Accident Investigator. He later became the Regional Safety Coordinator for all of New England. During this time he initiated the Wings Program for Pilot Safety, which gained enthusiastic support from Washington and was later expanded nationwide. At one time he was chief pilot the FAA's King Air. In 1980 he organized and ran the largest Aviation Safety Seminar ever held by the FAA (3500 pilots), earning an FAA Special Achievement Award. He also earned FAA Distinguished Service Awards in 1985 and 1999, and was named the Rhode Island Pilots Association Airman of the Year in 1979. In 2007 the Aviation Safety Group of Massachusetts recognized Ken for his lifetime contributions to aviation safety. Brown is also listed in the Guinness Book of Records for flight testing the only double amputee ever to obtain Instrument Flight Instructor certification.

The three deceased inductees are:

Joseph B. Perkins (1921-1986)

Born in Providence, Perkins was raised in the Edgewood section of Cranston. Miraculously overcoming childhood polio, he attended Mt. St. Charles Academy, played hockey and was the All-State football quarterback his senior year. He left college (Fordham) to enlist in the Army Air Corps three months before Pearl Harbor. He earned his wings in Bangor, Maine before shipping overseas to fly B-17 bombers with the 15th Air Force in the European Theater. Perkins flew missions out of Foggia, Italy with the 353rd Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 301st Bomb Group. On January 30, 1944 six heavy bomb groups and 60 P-47s successfully carried out major strikes on enemy targets in the Villaorba and Udine areas of Northern Italy. Perkins' plane was mortally damaged by flak that day, on his 43rd mission. His family was notified of the loss of the aircraft and the presumed deaths of the entire crew. However, Perkins managed to work the shrouds of his chute so that he did not perish in the Adriatic Sea, and he landed in a cornfield near the Yugoslav coast. With the help of General Tito's partisans, the injured and ill flier was smuggled from village to village until he finally met up with a British Special Operations unit that was able to evacuate him out to southern Italy. He had been behind enemy lines for 63 days. His family believes he was one of only two members of his crew to survive. For his wartime service he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with several clusters and a Purple Heart. After his discharge he went to work as a pilot for Eastern Airlines. He was recalled into the Air Force for the Korean conflict and was stationed in Roswell, NM and San Antonio, TX before being sent to England to fly for the Strategic Air Command. He continued his career with Eastern Airlines, earning citations from Eddie Rickenbacker and Frank Borman. He flew as a Captain and check pilot until his mandatory retirement (after 36 years of service) at age 60 in 1982. He died on March 12, 1986 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Albert R. Tavani (1913-1985)

A long-time Warwick resident, Tavani was born and raised in Philadelphia, He graduated from Providence College and Boston College Law School. A former Navy pilot and lawyer, he ran the state airport system for three decades. He is credited with bringing the state airport system from its infancy in the 1940s to the full-service network that now exists. When he became the state administrator of aeronautics in 1947, Green Airport had one commercial carrier, short runways and a small terminal building. There was just one other state airport, at Westerly, and it was in poor shape. When he retired at the end of 1977, Green Airport was greatly expanded, numerous airlines were serving Rhode Island, and there were five state airports in addition to Green. After graduating from college, Mr. Tavani moved to Johnston, where he served as coroner and then probate judge. Tavani, who had been a pilot since 1931, earned his commercial rating in 1938 and was active in the Civil Air patrol, becoming XO of the Rhode Island Wing. He became legal adviser to the Division of Aeronautics in 1939. He enlisted in the Army before being discharged to accept a commission in the Navy and go to flight school. He became a Navy flight instructor in 1942, spending most of the war teaching students to fly at Naval Air Station Dallas. In early 1945 he was assigned to Torpedo Squadron 150 aboard USS Lake Champlain at NAS Quonset Point, and was on the ship's Caribbean shakedown cruise when the war ended. After his discharge he was appointed assistant administrator of aeronautics, and the following year he was named administrator by then-Governor John Pastore. During his 30-year tenure he served variously as pilot, administrator, lawyer, economist, promoter, regulator and host to dignitaries. He was a visionary, making recommendations in the 1960s that prove their worth today. “Those policies remain today, continuing to make Tavani, even in retirement, the dominant force in Rhode Island aviation,” wrote the Providence Journal. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1982 for his "untiring efforts to keep Rhode Island in step with the developing air age." He died in 1985.

Edward Yatsko (1924-2000)

Yatsko was a native of New Jersey who settled in Warwick after WWII. When CWO4 Yatsko was retired (forcibly due to age) from the RI Army National Guard at age 62 in 1986 he was believed to be the last World War II combat aviator on active duty flight status and the oldest combat pilot on flying orders. The son of Czechoslovakian immigrants, he could not speak English when he first went to school. He left high school to join the military, was offered the chance to go to flight school, and at the age of 20 he flew his B-17 and its 12-man crew across the Atlantic. His was reportedly the last new B-17 crew to go to the European Theater. He flew 12 missions out of Rattlesden with the 447th Bomb Group before the war ended. Returning home, he was dissatisfied with life as a machinist. He eventually took a job selling boats, which brought him to Rhode Island. He was married and the father of two when he joined the National Guard in 1967 at age 43. He had not flown for 22 years, but the Vietnam War was on and he heard an Air National Guard radio appeal for veterans. "I had followed the glory trail in World War II. People opposed to our being in Vietnam were running off to Canada. I had two children, 9 and 12, at the time and I wanted them to make choices based on knowledge," said Yatsko in a 1986 newspaper interview. He drove to the airport, entered a building near parked green helicopters and allegedly signed on the dotted line before he realized he had joined the Army rather than the Air National Guard. Yatsko did not regret the mistake. He liked the fact that both hands, both feet and both eyes are required every minute to fly helicopters. He and his fellow pilots delivered pregnant women, sick people, food and blood to hospitals during the Blizzard of '78. After Hurricane Gloria in 1985, the Guard worked around the clock picking up trees and utility poles. When his first extension ran out in 1985, he passed all the requirements for flying duty at age 61: the annual flight physical, including a four-mile run; instrument check ride, flight test and a four-hour written exam. He earned the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal in addition to his various service and campaign medals. At his retirement, he became the first warrant officer to ever be awarded the Rhode Island Star. He died in February, 2000.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend the January 24 event. "Each year’s induction, and the publicity it receives, generates more recommendations from the public", said Frank Lennon, the Hall's founder. "Many people have written or called to let us know about the role a family member, neighbor or friend may have played in our state's rich aviation history. In fact, four of the five inductees this year were nominated by friends or relatives," Lennon said.

Tickets cost only $45 each ($80 per couple) and can be obtained by writing to the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame, PO Box 845, North Kingstown, RI 02852, or by e-mailing Tony Vellucci at tvellucci@saratogamuseum.org.

The brochure for the evening's event, which also includes a request for tickets form which can be printed and mailed to the address above, can be downloaded here [Download the brochure and form]. You can also register and pay online at AviationHeritageGroup.org.

Last Updated:
1/8/09