Air Force moves hall of fame ceremony due to shutdown

The National Aviation Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony Friday will be moved to the Hope Hotel and Conference Center from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force because of the government shutdown, organizers said Wednesday.

The 51st annual event, which was sold out with more than 600 attendees, was moved because the government shutdown has closed the museum until further notice, according to Ron Kaplan, enshrinement director. Four new inductees will be honored.

“It creates quite a few challenges and, of course, is not nearly as spectacular in the Modern Flight Gallery” inside the museum, Kaplan said this week. “We don’t have the luxury of postponing this event with the dignitaries coming in from all points of the compass.

“It just creates a great waste or time, money and manpower unnecessarily,” he said. “The irony is this is America’s Oscar night of aviation and our government has thrown it into a blender.”

The Hope Hotel is located next to Wright-Patterson Gate 12A off Ohio 444 in Fairborn. For information, log onto www.hopehotel.com and www.nationalaviation.org.

All event times remain the same, according to organizers.

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