{"id":35724,"date":"2026-06-22T19:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=35724"},"modified":"2026-06-22T19:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:33:21","slug":"lone-star-flight-museum-recognizes-long-time-museum-supporter-ed-noels-jet-racer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/texas\/lone-star-flight-museum-recognizes-long-time-museum-supporter-ed-noels-jet-racer\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Flight Museum Recognizes Long-Time Museum Supporter Ed Noel\u2019s Jet Racer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Photo &#8211; Aero L-39C Albatros \u201cAmerican Spirit\u201d jet racer at the &#8220;Innovations in Flight&#8221; event at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Smithsonian&#8217;s National Air and Space Museum. Photo credit: LSFM<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lonestarflight.org\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/lonestarflight.org\/\">Lone Star Flight Museum<\/a> (LSFM) congratulated its long-time supporter and donor, Ed Noel, on the induction of his Aero L-39C Albatros \u201cAmerican Spirit\u201d jet racer into the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum. On Saturday, June 13, 2026, the L-39C flew over the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.edu\/newsdesk\/releases\/national-air-and-space-museum-accepts-air-racer-national-collection-innovations\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.si.edu\/newsdesk\/releases\/national-air-and-space-museum-accepts-air-racer-national-collection-innovations\">Innovations in Flight<\/a>\u201d Smithsonian event and was accepted into the museum\u2019s permanent collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After undergoing the Smithsonian\u2019s selection process, Noel\u2019s plane was chosen based on its historical importance, rarity and cultural significance. His aircraft has racked up numerous awards for speed and world records, which include eight first place and nine top five finishes making it a compelling addition to the Smithsonian collection. The L-39C is a high-performance jet trainer aircraft designed and produced by Aero Vodochody in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The L-39C \u201cAmerican Spirit\u201d was featured as LSFM\u2019s Plane of the Month in November 2024. To honor LSFM, Noel added both the museum\u2019s official logo and Plane of the Month logo to the aircraft\u2019s tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo &#8211; Aero L-39C Albatros \u201cAmerican Spirit\u201d jet racer at the &#8220;Innovations in Flight&#8221; event at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Smithsonian&#8217;s National Air and Space Museum. Photo credit: LSFM The Lone Star Flight Museum (LSFM) congratulated its long-time supporter and donor, Ed Noel, on the induction of his Aero L-39C Albatros \u201cAmerican Spirit\u201d jet racer into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museums","category-texas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ed-Noel-and-plane-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35724","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=35724"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35732,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35724\/revisions\/35732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}