Former Cessna president named to Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame

Former Cessna Aircraft president Charlie Johnson, now president and CEO of Aero Electric Aircraft Corp. in Denver, has been inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame.

Johnson is co-founder and director of Aero Electric, which plans to offer a solar-electric airplane to serve the aviation training market.

“We very much appreciate the life-long advocacy and leadership that Charlie has brought to general aviation, particularly his support of electric-powered flight,” George Bye, AEAC’s CEO, said in a statement. “A true aviation pioneer, he is certainly deserving of this honor.”

The company is performing initial research and development flight test operations at Centennial Airport near Denver on a single-seat demonstrator. A two-seat prototype, called the Sun Flyer, is in assembly.

Johnson joined Cessna in 1979 as manager of production flight test and rose through the ranks. He was an Air Force combat pilot flying missions in a F-105 fighter in Southeast Asia and accumulated more than 1,000 hours of military flight time. He’s also logged more than 14,000 hours of commercial flight time.

Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame is administered by the Colorado Aviation Historical Society.

This story was originally published October 8, 2014 at 7:47 AM with the headline "Former Cessna president named to Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame."