Foil: 3 Panel: 1 Column: 4 Line: 106

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Roseanne Farano

Rocco J. Farano has loved aviation all his life. In 1934 when he was only nine years old he already had an impressive collection of Skybird Cards (purchased with bubble gum at one cent a piece), devoured aviation literature of all types & built model planes out of scraps of wood and tissue paper. Using discarded old razor blades for cutting balsa wood strips and cement walls for sandpaper, he built “rubber band powered” models and raced them in sanctioned competitions which he consistently won even though the division he competed in included adults because distance was the only determining factor, the planes that flew the furthest won!.
In 1944 at age sixteen he attended an Air Force preparatory school but upon graduation was drafted into the 36th Infantry rather than the Air Force because had corrective vision. In 1945 he was transferred to the 9th Air Force but still on the ground as an MP. By the time he earned his wings it was a “water only” rating having learned to fly at seaplane bases in New York with instructors William Bohlke, a WWI flying ace and Claude Dilworth a RAF ace. Eventually he earned his second private pilot’s license and one afternoon flew into Danbury, CT airport behind a small two place plane piloted by Charles Lindberg.
In 1957 he bought & restored a 1939 Fleet biplane which he flew in many air shows. By 1962 he had joined EAA, built a Mongo Sport biplane in his garage and began the process of flying and/or restoring planes such as a Stearman biplane, Fairchild PT19, Lowering, Ryan PT22, Fleet 16 B, Waco UPF and many more. He has been a judge many times at fly ins in Watsonville, CA; Steelville , CA; Frazier Lake, CA; Moffet Field, CA; Warwick, NY, Kolbert Field, NY and many more. He has a collection of aviation related materials dating from the 1920s to the present including vintage aircraft, EAA, Wings of History, and of course his beloved Skybird Cards.