Andrew, Pete Knight certainly deserves to be recognized as a pilot and a space pioneer, but he was also a very controversial political figure in California. He was the driving force behind the legislation to keep gay marriage illegal (the law that the San Francisco mayor was flouting earlier this year), and he was regularly denounced by the left as a rabid right-wing homophobe (I don't know to what degree that's true, but considering the sources of much of the criticism, I'm inclined to think that he wasn't as much of a neanderthal as his political enemies made him out to be).

About five years ago I spent a weekend with Pete Knight (and some other folks) at Ft. Irwin. I was a reporter at the time, and we were there to talk about stuff with the Army. He was gracious, kind, intelligent, and impatient with stupidity. He spoke his mind, listened to others speak theirs. While I disagreed with some of what he said, he was honest in his opinion and he was willing to listen to debate.