Raymond A. Johnson

Raymond A. Johnson (1912–1984) a native of Laramie, Wyoming, was one of his state's pioneer aircraft pilots. Besides commercial flights, his career included the tasks of weather observation, crop dusting, air racing, and lookouts for forest fires. In 2013, he became posthumously the 22nd inductee into the Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame in Cheyenne.

During World War II, Johnson was a test pilot on the North American P-51 Mustang and North American B-25 Mitchell for North American Aviation in Kansas City, Missouri. Afterwards, he worked at airports in Mitchell, Nebraska; Huron, South Dakota, and Great Falls, Montana. Johnson also flew for such companies as Rocky Mountain Airways and Plains Airways. He was operations manager of the United States Army Air Corps training program at Cheyenne, Laramie, and Fort Morgan in northeastern Colorado.

Waggener said that Johnson, who died in 1984, saw the development of aviation from a mere novelty into a global industry. He describes Johnson's legacy, accordingly:

Ray lived in the golden age of aviation. He not only witnessed it, he was part of it. But he'll probably be one of the last of this World War II era. We're starting to see a whole new range of pilots that include Vietnam pilots, big commercial pilots during the jet age, so we're going to see some different types of nominations [for the Hall of Fame] here in the next few years.

Plaques honoring the Wyoming aviators are displayed at the terminal of the Cheyenne Regional Airport.