Don Farrington

Who was Don Farrington?

Ira Donald “Don” Farrington was an American pilot and aviation entrepreneur famous for his knowledge of gyroplanes.

Farrington was an airline pilot with Pan American World Airways until the company went out of business in 1991. He created a privately owned, public-use airport called Farrington Airpark in his home town of Paducah, Kentucky. He bought the tooling and right to build the Air & Space 18A gyroplane in and with associates John Potter and Clem Anderson, Air & Space America Corporation produced several new model 18A gyroplanes at that location.

Farrington held several national and world records which were set in gyroplanes. After the end of Pan Am he worked full-time as a gyroplane instructor and trained hundreds of pilots and other flight instructors.

On April 13, 2000 Farrington crashed after suffering a heart attack while at the controls of an Air & Space 18A gyroplane. The aircraft veered to the right from an altitude of approximately 200 feet and hit the ground sideways. The NTSB investigation found no evidence of mechanical malfunction. He died from the resulting injuries on 23 April 2000.

On April 25, 2003, Farrington was posthumously honored as a "Gyroplane Pioneer" at the "Autogiro/Gyroplane Pioneers Banquet" held during the conference "From Autogiro to Gyroplane: The Past, Present and Future of an Aviation Industry" at Hofstra University.