John and Martha King, co-chairs of King Schools, have been honoured by being inducted into the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) Founders and Pioneers Hall of Fame, in recognition of their life-long dedication to making aviation learning accessible to all.

John and Martha started their aviation training careers by teaching private pilot and instrument rating accelerated ground school courses all over the US. They flew their own aircraft to destinations around the country to teach weekend ground schools and returned to San Diego to handle their business during the week. They estimate that they taught about 500 of these live courses to audiences of 20 to 400 people. In the late 1980s they put their classes on video tape, selling them first directly to flight instructors and then to pilots, revolutionising the aviation training industry. Since they started King Schools in 1974, over 500,000 individual pilots have taken their courses.

Founded in 1976, OBAP is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to the encouragement and advancement of minorities in all aviation and aerospace careers. Vanessa Blacknall-Jamison, the board chair of OBAP since 2016, says: “The obvious question concerning John and Martha's selection is, 'Why are we inducting this couple into the OBAP Founders and Pioneers Hall of Fame?' The answer is that we are thrilled to recognise these legends of the aerospace industry because their teaching transcends race, colour, religion, orientation, classification and identification. As we walked with the Kings through our Hall of Fame, members constantly stopped us. They wanted to thank the Kings for helping them get through their tests, take a selfie and say how much the Kings' teaching meant to them. It was an amazing outpouring of affection that affirmed our decision to induct them into our Founders and Pioneers Hall of Fame.”

Martha King adds: “This honour is so appreciated and is very humbling. An induction into any Hall of Fame was unimaginable when we started teaching people how to fly, and this is very special. An airplane doesn't care about the race, colour, gender or creed of the pilot. The plane only responds to the skill and knowledge of the pilot. It's that simple. Our teaching is available to anyone who has a passion for aviation, and recognition by the OBAP is just awesome.”

“We want to help our customers learn to fly safely and competently, and be able to protect themselves, their passengers and the people they love,” concludes John King. “For the OBAP to recognise and honour our teaching as making aviation learning accessible to all was both a huge surprise and a great delight.”