Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame

2021 Inductee

Forrest Lovley

Forrest Lovley has had a lifelong passion for vintage aviation. He learned to fly in Minnesota during high school, and at age 18, just after graduation, made a solo flight from Minneapolis to Maine. He returned in a Model A-powered Pietenpol Air Camper, which had been built in 1933, some 30 years earlier. Forrest was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served in the Airborne Infantry. In 1976, he married his wife, Linda, and went on to raise two sons, Vaughn and Matthew. Alongside raising a family, Forrest managed to restore more than 15 antique airplanes.

IIn 1972, he restored an original Model A Pietenpol Sky Scout with a Chevrolet Vega auto engine, winning Best Auto-Powered Homebuilt at Oshkosh in 1972. Five years later, he restored the Kari-Keen Sioux Coupe, one of just 32 examples ever built. His Sioux Coupe won Grand Champion Antique at Oshkosh in 1977. In 1980, Forrest rebuilt the Wittman Big X, a one-of-a-kind build by Steve Wittman from 1945.

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