Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame

Declaration of Enshrinement

November 6, 2010

Col. John Arthur Macready

John A. Macready, a Stanford University graduate who enlisted in the Air Service Branch of the Signal Corps in 1917, packed a pile of “firsts” in his relatively short initial career. Macready, a native of Searchlight, Nevada, in 1921, received his first of three MacKay Trophies for his high altitude test flights that established a new world altitude record. Obtaining an altitude of 40,800 feet in an open cockpit, he spent 1-hour 47-minutes in flight reaching the new height. At 39,000 feet, a buildup of ice caused the oxygen tank to fail. The auxiliary tanks enabled him to continue flying until the engine died at 40,800 feet where he glided back to earth.

Macready and Lt. Oakley Kelley received the MacKay Trophy, Macready’s second, in 1922 for their flight endurance record of 35 hours, 18 minutes. Then, in 1923, Macready and Oakley attempted to fly coast-to-coast, taking off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island in a modified Fokker T-2 aircraft and landing the plane in San Diego 26 hours 50 minutes and 38 3/5 seconds later. Having flown a total distance of 2,520 miles, both men received the 1923 MacKay trophy for this flight.

For his high altitude and endurance flight records, Col. John Arthur Macready earned his place in the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame.

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TD BARNES, Director

Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame