Why Is John Glenn Important To Me

Someone in aviation who has been an inspiration to me is John Glenn. No one in my family has any background in aviation and I had not meet any pilots prior to starting my private pilot training. For a large amount of my childhood, the first person to come to my mind when I thought of a pilot was John Glenn. I always was, and still am, a big fan of the movie “The Right Stuff.” The reason I enjoy this movie isn’t just because of the cool planes they show and all of the space missions. The reason I still like this movie is because it showed how the people flying theses missions were no different than anyone else. John Glenn didn’t wake up one day and know everything there was to know about aviation. He put in more work than the pilots next to him and was chosen to fly each of his missions because he was the best man for the job.

Another reason that John Glenn is inspiring to me is the fact that he was well accomplished before orbiting the earth. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth, however it is his other achievements leading up to that event that make him great. Glenn served as a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea. Personally, I have always had an incredible amount of respect for the pilots of World War II because of how new aviation was at the time and how little was known. In addition to his service in the military, Glenn also flew the first supersonic transcontinental flight across America. This flight is a major moment in the history of aviation. If someone were to read the background of John Glenn as a story, they would probably say it’s too much and not realistic for one person to do. The fact that Glenn was already a highly respected American before doing what no other American had ever done is truly