William “Bill” Kershner spent a lifetime teaching the art of flying, particularly aerobatics. He was an educator and ardent promoter of aerobatics and personally taught aerobatics to more than 600 pilots.
Bill was a guest lecturer at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma, Tennessee, lectured and demonstrated spins to engineers and test pilots at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent, Maryland, and lectured at the FBI Academy. His training manuals, including The Student Pilot’s Flight Manual and The Basic Aerobatic Manual, have sold more than 1.3 million copies.
The aerobatic aviation community lost a legacy when Bill passed away in January 2007.
From https://www.avweb.com/features/bill-kershner/
William K. Kershner was born September 27, 1929, in Clarksville, Tenn. He started flying lessons at age 15 and paid for them by fueling, washing and propping airplanes. He earned his private certificate in 1946, his commercial in 1948, and his CFI in 1949. After two years of college at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, he entered the Navy as an aviation cadet, and received his wings in February 1953. He served in VC-3 flying F4U-5N Corsairs from the carrier U.S.S. Philippine Sea. After returning to the U.S. in November 1954, Bill was a navigation and instrument training officer, chase pilot in F9F-6 Cougars and jet-transition training officer in T-33s for VC-3. He was released to inactive duty in August 1955. In October, 1955, he joined Texas Gas Transmission Corp. in Owensboro, Ky., as an executive pilot flying Bonanzas, Aero-Commanders, Twin Beeches and DC-3s. In June, 1958, he returned to Iowa State, wrote the Student Pilot’s Flight Manual and graduated with a degree in technical journalism in 1960. Bill worked at Piper Aircraft Corp. in Lock Haven, Pa., as a contract sales engineer from 1960 to December, 1963, demonstrating airplanes at various U.S. military bases, assisting W. T. Piper, Sr. with his Piper Airpark Program, and publishing the Private Pilot’s Flight Manual — now titled Advanced Pilot’s Flight Manual. In late December, 1963, he accepted job of Supervisor of Experimental Flight Testing at Piper. By June, 1964, increasing book sales allowed him to move to Sewanee, Tenn., where he now lives.
In 1969, Kershner began teaching aerobatics in a Beech Musketeer Aerobatic Sport III. From 1977 to 1979 he taught the course in a Cessna 150 Aerobat, and since 1984 he has used a Cessna 152 Aerobat. At his Ace Aerobatic School, he has taught over 500 students from all over the U.S. including 45 Army aviators, FAA test pilots and other personnel, aspiring Navy and Air Force pilots, and others interested in learning “defensive flying.” His lectures on spins and low-speed flight have taken him to the University of Tennessee Space Institute, the Patuxent Naval Air Test Center and the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. His Student Pilot’s Flight Manual is in its ninth edition, with 34 printings and over 800,000 sold. His Advanced Pilot’s Flight Manual is in its sixth edition, with 28 printings and 281,000 sold. His Instrument Flight Manual is in its sixth edition, with 22 printings and 176,000 sold. He has also written a Flight Instructor’s Manual, co-authored a Student Pilot’s Ground School Manual, and written articles in AOPA Pilot, Smithsonian Air and Space, Flying, Air Progress, Skyways, Private Pilot and other aviation magazines. His latest book — Logging Flight Time – and Other Aviation Truths, Near Truths, and More Than a Few Rumors That Could Never Be Traced to Their Sources — is a collection of articles, some previously unpublished. He was inducted into the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame in 2002.
