Moye W. Stephens - Further Career and Recognition

Further Career and Recognition

In 1932, shortly after the return of the Flying Carpet, he was invited to become an inaugural member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Aero Squadron. In 1937 he became a founder and board member of the Aviation Country Club of California, Inc. That same year he took leave of absence from Pacific Aircraft Sales, and enjoyed his honeymoon on a lengthy business trip: Lockheed sent him to New Zealand and Australia to promote sales and to check out the pilots of Union Airways and Ansett Airways in their new Lockheed Model 10 Electra airplanes. In 1942, he was presented an award of Distinguished Service by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in recognition of this work.

At the close of World War II, Stephens and Ted Coleman, Northrop sales manager, left Northrop to start an air cargo business in the interior of Brazil. They obtained a franchise from the Brazilian government, but the climate severely affected his young son's health so Stephens returned to the United States.

In 1948, John K. Northrop awarded him a lifetime membership in the Flying Wing Club as "one of a small group of distinguished pilots who have participated in the historical development and pioneered in the public acceptance of this revolutionary and highly efficient type of aircraft."

In 1982, he was made a member of the OX-5 Aviation Pioneers. In 1989, he was elected to the OX-5 Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame; he was chosen to join Charles Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Doolittle and some 50 other "carefully selected...eminent individuals in the aerospace field" "Moye Stephens: Aviation Pioneer and Adventurer" by Ronald Gilliam, originally published in the July 1999 issue of Aviation History. In 1983, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of The Society of Experimental Test Pilots in the San Diego Aerospace Museum. In 1990, his interview as a pioneer aviator appeared on a PBS television series, The American Experience, on the life of Charles Lindbergh, produced by Ken Burns.

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