Lincoln pilot receives national recognition award

[FEB. 6, 2006]  Marvin Boss Jr. of Lincoln has recently been awarded the Federal Aviation Administration's Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. This is a coveted national honor that is given to those rare pilots who have been flying for at least 50 years and have a perfect safety record. In addition, they must have a current flight review that enables them to act as pilot in command of an aircraft and must submit recommendations from fellow pilots.

Boss has been a pilot since the late 1940s, when he learned to fly in Lincoln. He subsequently entered the U.S. Air Force and flew in Europe for several years, flying the B-25 and B-29 bombers.

Upon returning to central Illinois, he was a member of the Illinois Air Guard in Peoria, flying fighter aircraft. He has been an active pilot at the Logan County Airport and a member and volunteer at the Heritage In Flight Museum, an organization dedicated to preserving the history of aviation from its inception until the present.

Mr. Boss will be presented with the award at a public aviation forum in Springfield on Feb. 25. His name will be added to those on display at the FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., of his elite fellow Wright Master Pilot Award recipients. He is the first pilot from Lincoln and Logan County to receive the award.

[Heritage In Flight news release]