Talk:List of aviators

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Aviation: Biography

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People from other walks of life with aviation in their history[edit]

I removed Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie from this list as I cannot see any evidence that they have any significant aviation history. I have not researched them all but some of the others on the list seem highly suspect to me too. Unless these people have had significant, meaningful involvement in aviation I feel it devalues the list for those more worthy. If their involvement is limited to acting the part of a pilot this does not make them worthy candidates, that's just showbiz, aviators are aviators. Ex nihil (talk) 04:12, 14 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Where will this end?[edit]

This list is so amorphously defined that either it will grow to an uncontrollable size, or will have to be restricted in membership. The list of famous military pilots seems both disjoint with the rest of the article, and is most subject to inflation. For instance, I could easily double the present list just by adding some of the prominent World War I aces.

At present the only WWI ace listed is Manfred von Richthofen, whose claim to fame is that he is "The Red Baron". His mentor, Oswald Boelcke, widely acknowledged to be the father of fighter tactics, is absent. Boelcke conceived of The Flying Circus before his death; Richthofen succeeded to command, and fame, after Boelcke's death. Mick Mannock is generally considered the pre-eminent patrol leader of the war, but where is he?

I could easily supply a shopping list of similar potential additions. And, given the lack of criteria, theoretically I could sandwich in the entire list of WWI aces under this category, all 1860 of them. Of course, they are already listed elsewhere in Wikipedia.

Georgejdorner (talk) 07:18, 8 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. The terms "Major contributors" "Famous" and "Significant people with an aviation history". Are too ambiguous to give this list an upper limit. It's also horribly formatted. The first sections looks like a category page, the second section is a stright list, and the third section is just a repeat of the aviators individual pages. If there is any pertinent information it should be on the bio page, not here. I'm going to remove the last section, and think about what to do with the rest. - Trevor MacInnis ^contribs 16:57, 8 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I was commissioned to produce mini-biogs of my own choice & order of '100 Top Pilots' for a 2003 (100 years of aviation) magazine supplement. I researched thoroughly! My 19th pilot was the first that doesn't appear in this Wiki page's lists: FRANK COURTNEY. My 23rd: SIR ROSS SMITH. My 34th: OSWALD BOELKE (military - WWI - developed rules of aerial combat). 35th: PAUL BULMAN. 37: CLAIRE CHENNAULT. I'll continue checking, maybe over time. Meanwhile if anyone does want to add these specifically, or create pages - over to you.Tony in Devon (talk) 15:06, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]