John William “Corkey” Fornof Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, into an aviation family—his father, J.W. “Bill” Fornof, was a U.S. Navy fighter pilot. On the day Corkey was born, Bill was assigned his first fighter aircraft, bearing the name “Corkey” painted on the cowl.
Raised in south Louisiana, Corkey’s passion for aviation began early and was cemented by time spent around warbirds and airshows. He learned the value of hard work through the family automobile business while also serving as plane captain for his father’s airshow performances in the F8F Bearcat and later the P-51 Mustang.
Corkey rebuilt a North American T-6 from the ground up and soloed under the instruction of family friend Charlie Hammonds. His first aerobatic airshow performance took place in 1967 at Spaceland Airpark, where he flew the P-51 Mustang at a charity event sponsored by NASA astronauts Pete Conrad and Neil Armstrong, with narration by Frank Borman and Shorty Powers.
In 1969, Corkey and his father formed the first civilian high-performance aerobatic team, flying Grumman F8F Bearcats until Bill Fornof’s tragic fatal accident in 1971. Corkey continued to carry forward a lifelong connection to aviation, airshows, and warbird flying.
