He received the Dwight H. Green Trophy in 1941. He was honored with a day by the City of Chicago on July 22, 1980. He was inducted into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame in 1984.[8]
In September 2023 Coffey will be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio.[9]
Legacy
The Cornelius R. Coffey Aviation Education Foundation was established at the American Airlines Maintenance Academy in Chicago in his honor to train young pilots.[6][10]
Pilots flying to Midway Airport make a course correction over Lake Calumet which is known as the Coffey Fix.[11] Coffey's Piper Tri-Pacer 135 aircraft was scheduled to be on exhibit from 2016 at the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum as part of the exhibit, Barnstormers, Wing-walkers, and Entrepreneurs: 150 Years of Aviation in Illinois.[10]
^Holway, John B. "Early pioneers". Cobblestone, ISSN 0199-5197, Feb. 1997, Vol. 18, Issue 2.
^Gubert, Betty Kaplan, Miriam Sawyer, and Caroline M. Fannin. Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science. Westport, CT: Oryx Press, 2001, page 73; ISBN1573562467.