CHARLES CITY - Two pilots with roots in Northeast Iowa will be inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame at its annual banquet Sept. 27.

Bill Fox of Charles City and Col. Kim Olson, a native of New Hampton, will join other noted aviators, including Glenn Martin, the Wright Brothers, Eugene Ely and the Iowan Tuskegee Airmen.

When Fox, an aviation engineer, was asked to join a top-secret government project in 1960, he didn't have much information to go on in making his decision.

"I asked, 'Who is it with?' … 'We can't tell you,'" Fox, 75, remembers.

"'Where is it at?' … 'We can't tell you.'"

He decided to join the project because he thought it was "a very patriotic thing to do."

The project turned out to be designing the fastest airplane in the world.

Fox played a key role in the development of the Blackbird, a spy plane that flew at three times the speed of sound and could reach 95,000 feet.

Fox was born in Osage and grew up on a farm near Orchard. After high school graduation in 1951 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He later attended Iowa State University and the University of Minnesota.

Olson joined the U.S. Air Force in the late 1970s but was initially rejected for military flight school during officer training because she was a woman.

She petitioned her case and successfully got the Air Force to reconsider. In 1980, 2nd Lt. Olson became the first woman to enter undergraduate pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas.

Her military career began as a KC-135 Stratotanker air refueling pilot, but Olson also has served as a flight instructor, assistant flight commander, instructor pilot and executive officer at training bases in Arizona and Texas.

She also led pilots into missions over Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kosovo.

Olson has received several military honors, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Aerial Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and the Humanitarian Service Medal. She retired in 2005 and lives in Weatherford, Texas.

For reservations to the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame's annual banquet, call the Iowa Aviation Museum at (641) 343-7184 or e-mail aviation@iowatelecom.net. Deadline is Saturday.