For 90th birthday, American pilot plans 90 border crossings

Loved ones of John Lawton will gaze heavenward on his 90th birthday Monday. Again and again and again.

Loved ones of John Lawton will gaze heavenward on his 90th birthday Monday. Again and again and again.

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Otherwise, they might miss his Cessna 172 as he attempts to make 90 flying passages across the US-Canadian border.

Lawton says he's been a pilot for 56 years and got it in his head to do something different for his birthday this year.

He plans a series of figure-eight maneuvers above the Niagara River on Grand Island, north of Buffalo, that will take him back and forth across the northern border.

He plans to bring his daughter, Brenda, along for the ride in his four-seat airplane.

Lawton had a long career at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, the predecessor to Calspan, in Buffalo. He now lives in Ohio where he owns a small airstrip.