Video: Lifelong Pilot Honored with Monroe County Airport Naming

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ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – His father passed on his love for flying. He even gave him the name to prove it. And now that name will live on in the gateway for pilots visiting one North Mississippi county. Meet the man who spent a lifetime in the air and influenced other pilots all the way to NASA.

Aero really is his given name. His father built his own airplane and then taught his son — Aero English to fly when he was 15. Sixty-eight years later, he’s still flying.

“It’s just something that you like and you look out and you feel freeer than you normally do. It’s just fun to be up there,” English says of his passion for being in the air.

Aero English moved to Amory in 1963 to fly the jet owned by the Scribner Heavy Equipment Company. He once landed  a plane in front of the business on Highway 25 so it could be sold at auction. And although he’s owned or flown just about every sized plane all over the United States and Europe, he prefers smaller aircraft, like the two 1946 Piper Cubs he still owns.

“I’m up there and I can still look at the same thing just slower,” he says, referring to his current attitude as flying “lower and slower.”

English was one of a handful of people who brought the county together to develop the Monroe County Airport between Aberdeen and Amory. He even borrowed the plans for the first terminal from an airport on the coast. Now, a new 2,300-square-foot terminal complete with offices, conference room and training area is about to be named in his honor, even if he wishes the county wouldn’t.

“You can find somebody with a shorter name to put on something like that,” he said of the decision by the Board of Supervisors.

He may not agree with the name choice, but he and airport manager Wes Kirkpatrick agree on the terminal’s importance to the airport, which sees more than 15 thousand take offs and landings a year and is home to 42 planes.

“We needed a new terminal for a long time,” English said simply.

“This new terminal building is the county’s front dorr to visitors, transient pilots as well as current and perspective industries to look at the county,” Kirkpatrick added.

The lives he’s touched include astronaut Robert Stewart, who learned to fly from English and his father. Stewart is attending Saturday’s ceremony. While the terminal is an honor, English is most proud of the Master Pilot award he’ll receive for more than 50 years of flying without an incident.

“Not many things you can get away with in life without making a mistake,” he said,

Saturday’s events include an open house at the airport from 10 until 2 with the dedication ceremony at 11 a.m.