The Aero Club of New England (ACONE) announced yesterday that Richard VanGrunsven is the recipient of the 2014 Godfrey L. Cabot Award. ACONE presents this prestigious award annually to individuals or teams who have made unique, significant, and unparalleled contributions to advance aviation and foster the science of aeronautics and/or astronautics.
Richard VanGrunsven, CEO and Founder of Van’s Aircraft Inc. located in Aurora, Oregon, founded his company in 1973 by starting a clean-sheet design of a homebuilt aircraft. The RV-3 was followed by the RV-4 tandem aircraft in 1979. Van’s Aircraft continued to produce new designs with good all-round performance, reasonable costs, and continuous improvement in kit quality.
His achievements have revolutionized the homebuilding of airplanes. The number of VanGrunsven-designed homebuilt aircraft produced each year in North America exceeds the combined production of all commercial general aviation companies.
Presentation of the Cabot Award will be on Friday, June 6, 2014 at ACONE’s Cabot Award Luncheon to be held at the Harvard Club in Boston, MA. Ticket information may be obtained at www.acone.org under the “Events” tab or by email to : programs@acone.org.
