Garden City, NY, March 31, 2026 - The Cradle of Aviation Museum remembers Tom Gwynne (1944-2026), who passed away earlier this month.

Gwynne was born on Staten Island, New York, and graduated from Brown University. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force and served as an F-4 Phantom pilot, including a combat tour in Vietnam, during which he earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses and ten Air Medals.

In 1969, he joined Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, Bethpage, New York, as a consultant on the Apollo Program. In 1972, he joined the Flight Test Department at the company’s Calverton facility in Calverton, New York, where he spent 15 years as a test pilot flying aircraft including the F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder, EA-6B Prowler, EF-111 Raven, OV-1 Mohawk, and Gulfstream III.

On July 6, 1979, Gwynne performed the first flight of F-14A (160902) at the Grumman flight test facility in Calverton, New York. The aircraft is now on display at Grumman Memorial Park in Calverton, New York.

In 1989, he was appointed Director of Flight Operations at Calverton, overseeing flight test operations. He later served as Operations Manager at Grumman’s St. Augustine, Florida, facility before retiring from Northrop Grumman in 1997.

He joined the Cradle of Aviation Museum later that year as Senior Planning Manager. During the years leading up to the Museum’s reopening in 2002, he played a central role in its expansion and redevelopment and was later named Vice President for External Relations.

“Tom brought firsthand knowledge of Long Island’s aircraft industry to the Cradle at a critical time,” said Andy Parton, President of the Cradle of Aviation Museum. “He was part of the team that helped shape how that history is presented to the public.”