On Dec. 17, 2010, the 107th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight, the National Aviation Hall of Fame announced inclusion of Dowagiac’s elementary school namesake as one of four members of the 2011 class.

The biggest surprise at that time was that 1945 Dowagiac graduate Capt. Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr. wasn’t already enshrined in Dayton, Oho, alongside Cass County aviation pioneer Leigh Wade, inducted in 1974.

Kincheloe’s class July 16 joined 207 “legends of flight” previously inducted since the hall’s 1962 founding.

With the U.S. Air Force, the Penn Township resident became a Korean war double ace and record-setting Jet Age test pilot hailed as the “first man in space.”

Had he not died young, Kincheloe might have gone on to become an astronaut like moon walkers Neil Armstrong (1979) and Buzz Aldrin (2000).

A Kincheloe award for the top test pilot was won by Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon in July 1969. The 50th annual enshrinement dinner took place in Dayton, where it is known as the “Oscar Night of Aviation.”

Who realized  that Kincheloe and Armstrong knew each other from Purdue, except when Kincheloe went on to the Air Force, Armstrong headed into the Navy.

“That was the absolute coolest part,” said Dan Hamill of Pokagon Township, who flew for American Airlines for 25 years and nominated Kincheloe.

He never knew Mrs. Kincheloe of Burbank, Calif., before, but she asked that he be seated at the same table as her and Armstrong, so Hamill chatted with and shook hands with Armstrong, who praised his fallen comrade as “one great guy” as well as being on the “leading edge” in his field.

Had the media celebrity lived to capitalize on his growing fame, he dreamed of owning a restaurant.

“Space job goes to Kincheloe,” the Grand Rapids Herald reported on its front page, Jan. 7, 1958.

That same month, he was interviewed for a U.S. News and World Report cover story asking, why go to the moon?

Saga, an adventure magazine, pulled no punches.

Kincheloe was simply the man picked to go to the moon.

Hamill said SMC Museum Director Steve Arseneau helped document Kincheloe’s worthiness for induction.