Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame Inductee Profile

Each year, the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame (MAHOF) inductee selection committee meets in June to review nomination submissions and to select the following year's inductees.

Selection includes evaluation of a candidate's significant aviation contributions to Minnesota, the area of the state the individual represents, and other criteria involving career and professional contributions.

Next April's banquet will honor the MAHOF 2022 inductees and return the organization to its regular banquet schedule. For more information on how to nominate someone for the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame, please visit http://www.mnaviationhalloffame.org/nominations.html.

The MAHOF will showcase one inductee a month in the Minnesota Flyer leading up to the annual awards banquet, which is typically held in April.

This year, seven inductees have been selected. Martin Knutson is the third of the MAHOF 2022 inductees.

A quick reminder: The 2020 MAHOF inductees were featured in the Minnesota Flyer in 2019-2020. There were no 2021 inductees.

Martin Knutson (1930-2013) was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from St. Louis Park High School and attended the University of Minnesota working on a degree in Electrical Engineering using the U.S. Navy's Holloway Plan, a program that paid for college while a person was serving with that military branch.

While serving with the Pacific Fleet during the summer of 1949, he took his first airplane ride in the ball turret of a Grumman TBM Avenger. It was after that flight he decided it would be better to be in the cockpit where the controls were.

In 1950 Knutson transferred into the U.S. Air Force and went to flight training. He trained in the T-28 and F-80A.

Upon his graduation, Knutson was assigned to a jet fighter squadron. He deployed to Korea where he flew combat missions in the F-80 and F-86.

Following Korea, he was assigned to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) as a fighter pilot stationed at Turner AFB, Georgia. He flew the Republic F-84, training for long range nuclear strike missions.

In 1955 he volunteered for assignment to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where he participated in the flight testing of the U-2, the first-ever aircraft designed for sustained high-level flight. He was then deployed to Europe and flew missions over the Soviet Union.

Knutson continued to fly covert missions over "denied territory" throughout the world until his retirement from the Air Force in 1970.

Following his retirement, Knutson joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center in California as Manager of Earth Resources Projects. There he helped develop airborne remote sensing equipment for observation satellites. He helped modify U-2s for earth sensing missions regarding sea and land ice, wildlife habitat, ozone depletion, air pollution, typhoon dynamic structure, and other environmental projects.

Knutson moved on to become NASA Site Manager at the Dryden Test Flight Facility. This was during the beginning of the Space Shuttle program when most of the Shuttle landings were made at Edwards Air Force Base.

At Dryden, he participated in many unique test programs and was responsible for NASA's obtaining three SR-71 aircraft for environmental missions, after the Air Force had retired them. At the age of 67 he flew an SR-71 to a speed of Mach 3.275. He retired from NASA in 1997.

Knutson served a combined 47 years with the Air Force, CIA and NASA. He amassed over 4,000 flight hours in the U-2 during his 29 years flying it.