North Dakota teacher named Aerospace Educator of the Year

A North Dakota teacher has been named the 2015 A. Scott Crossfield Educator of the Year by the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Mike McHugh is an aviation instructor at the Bismarck Career and Technical Education Campus in Bismarck.

“McHugh’s accomplishments include providing students with hands-on flight instruction and simulator training, aircraft construction and maintenance experience, and aligning industry experts with his students to encourage their pursuit of aviation careers and personal development,” the National Aviation Hall of Fame said. “His leadership has advanced enrollment and led to his role in advising other communities seeking to replicate his success.”

McHugh receives $5,000 and will accept the award Oct. 2 at the National Aviation Hall of Fame’s fifty-third annual enshrinement dinner and ceremony.

Four air and space pioneers will be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame’s class of 2015. They are retired Air Force Gen. Robert L. Cardenas, who was a World War II B-24 combat pilot and test pilot for the X-plane programs; the late Robert N. Hartzell, early manufacturer of wooden aircraft propellers and designer of lightweight, controllable metal propellers for the general aviation industry; Eugene “Gene” Kranz, Air Force fighter pilot and aeronautical engineer; and the late Abe Silverstein, an aerodynamicist during World War II who was “credited at NASA as the architect of the U.S. space program.”