Harmon Trophy

The awards are described by the Clifford B. Harmon Trust as: Prior to World War II, the award was administered by the International League of Aviators (Ligue Internationale des Aviateurs), an organization founded by Harmon to serve as "an agent for Peace and National security.

"[2] The League became defunct during the war and Harmon's death on June 25, 1945 in Cannes, France[3] put the awards in turmoil.

"[6] Truman also did not make time to present the 1948 award to Trans World Airlines CEO Ralph Damon[7] or Brazilian aviation pioneer Francisco Pignatari[8] The award to Pan American World Airways President Juan Trippe in 1946 was the only one presented without debate.

[12] The aviator trophy depicts World War I flying ace Raoul Lufbery launching a biplane set next to an eagle about to take wing.

The three-foot-tall, 150-pound statue of five aviators holding the globe on their shoulders was found in a junk store and subsequently given to the Smithsonian after the presentation of the 1952 awards.

The NAA and the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum worked to assemble a complete list to be published in conjunction with the NAA's hundredth anniversary in 2005, however this project was not completed and it appears that the source documents for a period of awards were destroyed.