Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame
Enshrined 2007
Elgin Newell was born on September 10, 1906, in Balsa, California. He received his pilot’s license in 1932 and went to work for Browne Flying Service in Sacramento, California. In the early 1940’s he went to work for Southwest Airways as a flight instructor at Thunderbird Field near Phoenix, Arizona. Here he helped to train some of the 46,000 American, British and Chinese aviation cadets that passed through Arizona during World War II.
Between 1945 and 1951 he worked for Sky Harbor Air Service flying charter and air ambulance flights. In 1951 he went to work as the Director of Flying at Marana Air Base. In his last aviation job, he was the chief pilot for the State of Arizona from 1962 to 1973. Elgin retired to his California ranch in 1973. He passed away in 1985.
