ROBERT DELAURENTIS

Nominee

Former Naval officer and real estate entrepreneur turned pilot, Robert DeLaurentis completed a nine-month Polar Circumnavigation to share peace worldwide by connecting the two places on the planet where peace has always existed — the North and South poles.

His highly modified 1983 Twin Commander aircraft named “Citizen of the World” was the vehicle for his mission, “One Planet, One People, One Plane: Oneness for Humanity.” He and his worldwide team filmed a documentary of this journey. Along with his book are both titled: Peace Pilot: To the Ends of the Earth and Beyond (2023). They include interviews with locals along with NGO leaders, Living Legends, and aviators in 22 countries on 6 continents - all who examine what it means to be a “Citizen of the World.” A portion of the film was used by the United Nations on World Peace Day.

Despite extreme weather challenges (a cyclone in Madagascar, 60 degrees Celsius temperatures) and mechanical failures (chemical burns from bursting fuel tanks inside the aircraft, lost communications and navigation over the poles, mechanical failures in flight) and the pandemic, DeLaurentis persisted.

Multiple first-time aviation innovation records set include:

• Successful use of biofuels over the North and South poles for the first time

• Longest distance flown in a twin- or single-engine turboprop (18.1 hours)

• First and fastest Polar circumnavigation of the planet in a twin or single-engine turboprop

• First testing for atmospheric plastic microfibers across the globe including over the South and North poles for Scripps Institute of Oceanography

• First testing of WaferScale Spacecraft for NASA

Robert's books are Flying Thru Life and best-selling, Zen Pilot: Flight of Passion and the Journey Within. He has co-authored two children’s books, The Little Plane that Could and Let’s Fly.

Robert is the president of the DeLaurentis Foundation which funds aviation scholarships, provides aviation books to aspiring pilots, minted courage coins that were flown over the poles, and a video “Overcoming the Fear of Flying”.