Backlash after Prince Harry handed ‘living legend’ aviation award

Prince Harry, seen at England's Museum of Army Flying in 2018, will next week be inducted into the US Living Legends of Aviation. Photo / Getty Images

The Duke of Sussex has been engulfed in a row after the decision to recognise him as a “living legend of aviation” was branded “daft”.

Prince Harry, 39, who completed two tours of Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot, and the Duchess of Sussex, 42, will attend next week’s ceremony in Beverly Hills, California – their first public engagement of the year.

Harry will join the likes of astronauts Buzz Aldrin and James Lovell in being honoured by the body when he is inducted next week.

Other prominent inductees who have made “significant contributions to the aerospace industry” include billionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Sir Richard Branson.

Defence chiefs lashed out at the decision to recognise Harry ahead of other contenders, such as Tim Peake, the first British astronaut to walk in space.

Admiral Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy, said: “He is not a living legend of aviation. To suggest he is, is pathetic.

“It makes the whole thing seem a bit of a nonsense if they’re willing to pick someone like Prince Harry.

“He is not a living legend. There are lots of people who deserve to be called this but not Prince Harry.

“I find it extraordinary he has been picked. He didn’t carry off any great exciting feat of amazing flying skill while flying for the Army.”

The decision to honour Prince Harry, pictured in 2012 doing early morning pre-flight checks in Afghanistan, as a living legend of aviation has come under fire. Photo / AP

The former First Sea Lord told MailOnline: “They’re just trying to get publicity. They know it will cause a stir. I find the whole thing really rather pathetic.”

Celebrity inductees include Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise.

Retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp said the awards were about “celebrities massaging each other’s egos”.

He told The Sun: “I can think of many people who did pretty extraordinary things while serving in the British and American armed forces who would be much more deserving of an award like this.

“It is obviously because of who he is – not what he did. An Apache is crewed by two people – a pilot and a gunner. Harry was a gunner. He was No 2 in the aircraft.”

Robert Jobson, the royal commentator, said: “I think the idea that Prince Harry is getting an award for being a living legend of aviation seems a bit daft.”

He told the Express: “He’s hardly Amelia Earhart, is he?”

The award ceremony next Friday will be hosted by the actor John Travolta, who is said to have been befriended by the Sussexes last summer.

Harry will be inducted alongside three others: Fred George, a US navy pilot; Steve Hinton, a former world speed record holder; and Marc Parent, the chief executive of Canadian aviation simulation company CAE.

He is hailed for being a British Army veteran and pilot with 10 years’ military service, saving the lives of allied forces and civilians in Afghanistan and creating the Invictus Games for wounded service personnel.

The Living Legends of Aviation are described as “remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation/aerospace”.