Kermit Weeks

Kermit Weeks was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Kermit Weeks grew up in Miami, Florida. His childhood interest in mechanical design and construction evidenced itself early. While still a teenager, Kermit had already taken to the skies and learned to fly. At age 17, while still in high school, he began construction of his first home-built aircraft—an airplane he completed and flew four years later. In 1973, at age 20, Weeks began taking to the air in aerobatic flying competitions while pursuing an aeronautical engineering degree at Miami-Dade Junior College, the University of Florida, and Purdue University. By 1977, Kermit had built the “Weeks Special,” an aerobatic aircraft of his own design, and he qualified for the United States Aerobatics Team at age 24. In 1978, he was runner-up among 61 competitors worldwide, earning three Silver medals and one Bronze medal in the World Aerobatics Championships staged in Czechoslovakia. Over the span of a dozen years, he placed in the top three in the world five times and won a total of 20 medals in World Aerobatics Championship competition. He has twice won the United States National Aerobatics Championship and has won several Invitational Masters Championships in different worldwide competitions. EAA member since he was 16 years old and has been on the EAA Board of Directors since 1997 • Inducted into the EAA Warbird Hall of Fame in 2005 • Recognized as a “Living Legend of Aviation” in 2006 • Inducted into the Florida Aviation Hall of Fame in 2008 • Won a Bronze Medal in the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards for All of Life is a School • Awarded the Freedom of Flight Award by Bob Hoover at the Living Legends of Aviation Awards banquet in Beverly Hills in 2010 • Received a “Lifetime Acrobatics Achievement Award” (for Extreme Sports) from the World Acrobatic Society in 2010 • Member of the Governing Board of Directors of the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation since 2010 • Board member of the Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society since 2010 • Awarded the Lloyd P. Nolen Lifetime Achievement in Aviation Award by the Wings Over Houston Air Show in 2012 • Won a Pinnacle Book Publishing Award in 2012 for his second children’s book The Spirit of Lindy