{"id":20892,"date":"2022-02-07T22:22:18","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T22:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=20892"},"modified":"2022-02-07T22:22:21","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T22:22:21","slug":"national-air-and-space-museums-2022-michael-collins-trophy-awarded-to-wally-funk-and-the-mars-ingenuity-helicopter-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/district-of-columbia\/national-air-and-space-museums-2022-michael-collins-trophy-awarded-to-wally-funk-and-the-mars-ingenuity-helicopter-team\/%20","title":{"rendered":"National Air and Space Museum’s 2022 Michael Collins Trophy Awarded to Wally Funk and the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum awards its\nMichael Collins Trophy annually for Lifetime and Current Achievements. The 2022\nrecipients are Wally Funk for Lifetime Achievement and the Mars Ingenuity\nHelicopter Team for Current Achievement; they will receive their awards at a\nceremony March 24 at the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly,\nVirginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established in 1985, the award recognizes outstanding achievements in the fields of aerospace science and technology and their history. Trophy winners receive a miniature version of “The Web of Space<\/a>,” a sculpture by artist John Safer. The renaming of the trophy in 2020 (previously the National Air and Space Museum Trophy) recognizes Collins’ contributions to aerospace and his service to the museum as director during a critical time in its evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You could say the theme of the 2022 awards is\n‘firsts,'” said Chris Browne, acting director of the museum. “Wally\nFunk often held the title of ‘first’ and ‘only’ throughout her career as a\npilot, instructor and air safety investigator. The Ingenuity team accomplished\ntheir ‘first’ with a flight on another planet and expanded the boundaries of\nplanetary exploration. We’re thrilled to be able to recognize both for their\namazing achievements.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022 Michael Collins Trophy Recipients<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funk embodies the adage of “never give up on your\ndreams.” Since her first flying lesson in 1948 at age 9 and enrollment in\nflight school at 16, Funk knew that she wanted to fly, despite societal biases\nagainst women in aviation. After earning multiple certificates and ratings, she\nset her sights even higher in the sky\u2014space. She was one of the top-performing\nparticipants in the Lovelace Woman in Space Program and was the first woman to\nserve as an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety\nBoard. She dedicated decades of her life to flight instruction and safety, having\nlogged over 19,600 hours of flight time and soloed more than 700 students,\nwhile never abandoning her dream of going to space. In 2021, that dream came\ntrue when she launched on the first crewed suborbital mission of Blue Origin’s\nNew Shepard capsule.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2021, under the direction of project manager MiMi\nAung and the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Team, a small robotic helicopter\nachieved the first powered flight on another planet. Delivered to the surface\nof Mars by the rover Perseverance, Ingenuity was a technology demonstration\naboard the Mars 2020 mission and successfully proved that flight was possible\non the Red Planet. It is also now serving as a helpful tool to aid rover\nexploration of Mars. Ingenuity completed increasingly challenging flights and\nscouted areas for the Perseverance rover’s upcoming treks. Total flight time\nfor the Mars helicopter in 2021 topped 30 minutes over the course of 18\nflights. Ingenuity’s “Wright Brothers moment” captured the attention\nof the public back on planet Earth and inspired everyone to imagine what could\nbe next in planetary exploration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information about the Michael Collins Trophy and a complete list of past winners is available<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Michael Collins Trophy event is made possible through\nthe support of Atlas Air Worldwide, BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, The\nClaude Moore Charitable Foundation, Jacobs, Leidos, National Air Traffic\nControllers Association, Pratt & Whitney, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Thales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., is\nlocated at Sixth Street and Independence Avenue S.W. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy\nCenter is located in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington Dulles International\nAirport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum awards its Michael Collins Trophy annually for Lifetime and Current Achievements. The 2022 recipients are Wally Funk for Lifetime Achievement and the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Team for Current Achievement; they will receive their awards at a ceremony March 24 at the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-district-of-columbia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20893,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20892\/revisions\/20893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}