Warbirds 20 Under 40

Our Rising Stars in Action….

Job Savage in the -3, James Webb in the OV10 Bronco, Curt Lewis in the Beech 18 and committee member Trevor Henson in the Albatross flying this evening at Oshkosh….

Lindy Linebaugh one of our honorees with committee member Larry Lee after her L39 flight this evening…..we honor her accomplishment!

Members of the class of 2024 have continued to arrive here in Oshkosh.

We caught up with Nick and Jennifer Kanakis, our married winners who are expecting a new aviator and Savannah Weaver while we were attending get together of the T34 Association and the Party at the ‘Swamp’ last night.

Good morning from Oshkosh!

We are proud to present to our community the Rising Stars of the Class of 2024!

Katrina Hodges Keegan Chetwynd. Job Savage. Stephen Koewler
Joe Greene. Curt Lewis. Bevan Dewes. Zachary McNeil. Josh Miller. Andres Morales
LainWayman. Garrett Fleishman
Ryan McNeill. Savannah Weaver. Lindy Linebaugh Christopher Hicks. Nick Kanakis, Jennifer Kanakis James Webb Sean VanHatten

When you see them this week please congratulate them on their passion and accomplishments! Bravo Zulu all!

When you see someone wearing this hat….introduce yourself and say Congratulations! They are our Rising Stars!

The Zachary James Collie-Moreno Warbird Scholarship Program (the Warbird Scholarship) is a program within the Commemorative Air Force Central Texas Wing that exists for the purpose of providing scholarships to young individuals who demonstrate an interest in miliary aviation history and aircraft maintenance and are planning to get their Air Frame and Power Plant certification license.

We are now accepting applications. Please visit our website for more information. The link is in the bio.

We are now accepting applications. Please visit our website for more information. https://www.centraltexaswing.org/warbirdscholarship

Before Oshkosh week gets underway, I would like to loudly send a 'Thank You so much!' to the sponsors for the Class of 2024 Awards!

Without your generous support, the program would not have been able to be relaunched and so successful!

The Committee and the National Warbird Operators Conference are grateful to the following:

Mr. Larry Kelley and the Delaware Aviation Museum and B25 Panchito

Mr. Larry Lee and Plas Tech Corp. Larry is the VP of the Classic Jet Aircraft Association

The Military Aviation Museum of Virginia Beach

Mr. Mark Clark and Courtesy Aircraft. Mark was the originator of the 20 Under 40 program.

Mr. Michael Rutledge and Rutledge Airbourne Applications LLC

Mr Thom Richard and America's Dream Skyranch

Also, we are already planning for the Class of 2025. If you would like to get on board with a donation of sponsorship please reach out to me at Oshkosh!

Pete DeLisa

Sunday evening at the Warbirds Picnic we will announce the members of the Class of 2024 ‘20 Under 40’ Rising Stars.

Please if you are at the picnic find our awardees and offer your congratulations and contact information! The best thing we can do as a community is to help and encourage the next generation!

Each awardee will have a grey baseball cap identifying them as a member of the class of 2024. As the week goes on, if you see them, say hello!

We will post the names of the awardees after they are announced!

Good afternoon! I just sent an email to the 2024 Rising Stars 20 Under 40 winners!

The names will be publicly announced at the Warbird picnic on Sunday July 21 at Oshkosh. Hopefully the awardees will all be there so you can all meet these terrific individuals!

I need to recognize the committee members and thank them for their help with getting this program going again.

Bijan Maleki, Ciara McGuirk, Jim Lauria, Rob Pinksten, Trevor Henson, Jeff Tolan, Sarah Jeziorski, Eric Nielsen (Class of 2019) Larry Lee.

Each member of the committee is involved in warbirds and mentoring the next generation. We all see the importance of ‘paying it forward’ as does the leadership and membership of National Warbird Operators Conference.

Congratulations to our winners! Bravo Zulu!!

Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations and to our sponsors who have contributed funding to the committee.

Thank you!!! See you in Oshkosh!!

Pete DeLisa-Chairman

If you are in Chino this weekend….Stop by! They are a great group to get involved with and learn from!

We are still looking for monetary donations for our award program. Please send a PM or email [email protected] to help!

We are in the closing hours of the Nomination window….Get ‘em in!

I must say that we have great submissions and candidates for the awards!

Very impressive group of nominees!

Thank you to everyone that has submitted!

The nomination window for the 2024 20 under 40 program is coming to a close. June 20 is the day.

If you need an application form, send a pm here or email [email protected]

Additionally we are still looking for sponsors for monetary donaitons to cover the cost of the awards as well as flying/maintenance opportunities for our winners.

If you need a donation form, send a pm here or email [email protected]

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Oshkosh!

Let’s here is for the people who Keep ‘Em flying!

Today is ! A huge shoutout to all the AMTs who keep our skies safe. Thank you for your dedication and hard work! ✈️

Please share the good word!

Warbirds 20 Under 40 Relaunched! The warbird community feels it is important to recognize young individuals making a positive contribution to the industry and helping to preserve the history of these aircraft and the people involved.

The time is here that you have been waiting to happen! The Application period is open from now until June 15, 2024! The application is attached. We are looking forward to seeing the applications and meeting the next generation!

Good evening!

Many of you have asked for a more detailed description of what we are hoping to accomplish thru the 20 Under 40 program.

I have just updated the page to include the information about our group below!

Please feel free to share our page and our mission!

In 2019, awards were given to 20 individuals under the age of 40 recognizeing them as future leaders and participants in the Warbird community. They were both pilots and mechanics.

We intend to continue the award so that young people who have an interest can be helped and encouraged to become involved with warbirds/warbird organizations and become the caretaker of these invaluable pieces of history!

We are now encouraging all sectors of the warbird community, ground support staff, museum volunteers, airshow organziers and announcers to look at their new particpants and guide, encourage and mentor them to be our future!

Nominations from all sectors of our community and encouraged and welcomed!

After a several year hiatus, the Warbirds 20 Under 40 is again moving forward. We are in the process of reforming a committee and we expect to make applications available in March 2024.

We are looking for sponsors of prizes for our winners as well as individuals and stakeholder groups looking to get involved with helping on the committee.

We have been working for the last 2 weeks to get things going again and the respoonse from the Warbird community has been positive and outstanding!

If you have an initerest in getting involved, please send a private message here or drop an email to [email protected] and someone will get back to you!

We look forward to meeting all of you in Oshkosh and announcing our 2024 winners as well as reintroducing you to all of our past winners!