 The International Council of Air Shows (ICAS) Foundation announced today that it has inducted three new members into its Air Show Hall of Fame. Gene Soucy, Chuck Newcomb, and the AeroShell Aerobatic Team will be recognized at the ICAS Chairman's Banquet on Thursday, December 11 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 2014 inductees join a prestigious group of more than 50 air show legends, including Bob Hoover, Leo Loudenslager, Bevo Howard, Duane Cole, Charlie Hillard, Paul Poberezny, Art Scholl, Curtis Pitts, Jimmy Franklin, and Bill Barber.
Air show performer Gene Soucy has helped to define air show entertainment during an air show career that has now spanned parts of six different decades. As a member of the famed Eagles Aerobatic Team, as part of the wingwalking team he formed with Teresa Stokes in 1988, and as a solo performer for nearly five decades, Soucy has long been recognized as one of the finest air show performers in the world. He is a past recipient of the Bill Barber Award for Showmanship, the ICAS Sword of Excellence, the Art Scholl Showmanship Award, the Bill Adams Showmanship Award, and the Rolly Cole Memorial Award. He is a former National Advanced Aerobatic Champion and a member of the first U.S. team to win the World Aerobatic Championship. During his air show career, he has performed before tens of millions of fans in 14 different types of aircraft.
Like Soucy, Chuck Newcomb has worked professionally in the air show business for more than 40 years. After an intensive introduction to the business as a member of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels for two years in the early 1970s, Newcomb began his career as an air show event organizer in 1975. Since then, he has organized and conducted more than 150 different air shows and aviation events all over the world. He spearheaded the historic Soviet MiG tour of North America in 1991. He helped to open the Denver International Airport in 1993 with a massive air show and open house. He planned and conducted the 100th Anniversary of Flight Dayton Air Show in 2003. And he has been the driving force behind the Cleveland National Air Show for four decades. Newcomb is also a past recipient of the prestigious ICAS Sword of Excellence and has served on the ICAS Board of Directors for a total of 18 years during the last 40 years.
First formed in 1985, the AeroShell Aerobatic Team is the longest running civilian aerobatic team in North America. Flying their iconic white, red and black North American AT-6 Texans, the team is renowned for their professional airmanship, billowing smoke systems and can-do attitudes. During three decades of performing, the team's four-ship formation has included several different skilled pilots: Steve Gustafson, Alan Henley, Ben Cunningham, Gene McNeely, Mark Henley, Bryan Regan, Jimmy Fordham, and Morris Ray. The team's talent and popularity as air show entertainers has been recognized with the air show community's two most prestigious performer awards: the Art Scholl Showmanship Award and the Bill Barber Award for Showmanship.
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