November 5, 2004 – Betty Stewart and Dorothy Hester became the 30^th and 31st inductees into the International Aerobatic Hall of Fame during a presentation at the EAA Museum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Friday, November 5, 2004.

Stewart, of Moscow, Idaho, was a member of the 1976, 1980 and 1982 United States aerobatic teams. She is honored as the first person to win the world champion title at two consecutive world events. In 1980, she won three individual gold medals and the title Women's World Aerobatic Champion. In 1982, she repeated this feat winning the title, another three individual golds, and the silver team medal. Stewart continues to support the growth of grassroots aerobatics in both powered aircraft and gliders serving as a judge, critiquer, and coach to aerobatic competitors.

View Betty Stewart’s Hall of Fame Video Vignette

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Hester, who died in 1991, was the unchallenged top female aerobatic pilot of the 1930s. She became the first woman pilot to perform an outside loop and soon after did an amazing 69 outside loops continuously without taking a single break. She also set a record for both men and women by performing 56 continuous inverted snap rolls and was traveling the national air show circuit by age 20. She put her career on hold to tend to her family, but in 1948 (at age 38), she became the first woman to take the U.S. Navy’s “G-test,” the forerunner to tests given to the first astronauts.

View Dorothy Hester’s Hall of Fame Video Vignette

• Windows Media (5.18 MB)
• QuickTime (5.52 MB)

The complete list of Hall of Fame inductees and nominating procedures.