The FAI Gold Air Medal was established in 1924 by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and was first awarded in 1925. This award and the Paul Tissander Diploma are the FAI's two highest awards. It is reserved for those who have contributed greatly to the development of aeronautics by their activities, work, achievements, initiative or devotion to the cause of aviation.
| Date | Name | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1925 | Francesco de Pinedo | Italy |
| 1926 | Alan Cobham | United Kingdom |
| 1927 | Charles Lindbergh | USA |
| 1928 | Bert Hinkler | Australia |
| 1929 | Dieudonné Costes | France |
| 1930 | Italo Balbo | Italy |
| 1931 | Hugo Eckener | Germany |
| 1932 | Juan de la Cierva | Spain |
| 1933 | Wiley Post | USA |
| 1934 | C. W. A. Scott | United Kingdom |
| 1935 | not awarded | |
| 1936 | Jean Mermoz | France |
| 1937 | Jean Batten | United Kingdom |
| 1938 | not awarded | |
| 1939 | not awarded | |
| 1940 | not awarded | |
| 1941 | not awarded | |
| 1942 | not awarded | |
| 1943 | not awarded | |
| 1944 | not awarded | |
| 1945 | not awarded | |
| 1946 | Igor Sikorsky | USA |
| 1947 | Chuck Yeager | USA |
| 1948 | not awarded | |
| 1949 | not awarded | |
| 1950 | Frank Whittle | United Kingdom |
| 1951 | Edward P. Warner | USA |
| 1952 | not awarded | |
| 1953 | Jacqueline Cochran | USA |
| 1954 | James Doolittle | USA |
| 1955 | Maurice Hurel | France |
| 1956 | Peter Twiss | United Kingdom |
| 1957 | David G. Simons | USA |
| 1958 | Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev | USSR |
| 1959 | Pierre Satre | France |
| 1960 | Yuri Gagarin | USSR |
| 1961 | Geoffrey De Havilland | United Kingdom |
| 1962 | not awarded | |
| 1963 | Jacqueline Auriol | France |
| 1964 | Vladimir Kokkinaki | USSR |
| 1965 | Robert L. Stephens | USA |
| 1966 | Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev | USSR |
| 1967 | Joseph A. Walker | USA |
| 1968 | Sergey Ilyushin | USSR |
| 1969 | José Luis Aresti Aguirre | Spain |
| 1970 | Dick Merrill | USA |
| 1971 | Elgen Long | USA |
| 1972 | Marina Popovich | USSR |
| 1973 | Don Anderson | Australia |
| 1974 | Aleksandr Vasilyevich Fedotov [1] | USSR |
| 1975 | Curtis Pitts | USA |
| 1976 | Sholto Hamilton Georgeson | New Zealand |
| 1977 | Michael Murphy (aviator) | USA |
| 1978 | Hans Werner Grosse | Federal Republic of Germany |
| 1979 | Paul Maccready | USA |
| 1980 | Ann Welch | United Kingdom |
| 1981 | Jean-Pierre Freiburghaus | Switzerland |
| 1982 | Paul Poberezny | USA |
| 1983 | Jan Mikula | |
| 1984 | J. R. D. Tata | India |
| 1985 | Ralph Paul Alex | USA |
| 1986 | Semyon Kharlamov | USSR |
| 1987 | Henry Kremer | United Kingdom |
| 1988 | August Christov Kabaktchiev | Bulgaria |
| 1989 | George Alfred "Peter" Lloyd | Australia |
| 1990 | Sabiha Gökcen | Turkey |
| 1991 | Kyung O Kim | South Korea |
| 1992 | Cenek Kepak | Slovakia |
| 1993 | Olavi Rautio | Finland |
| 1994 | Scott Crossfield | USA |
| 1995 | Hanspeter Hirzel | Switzerland |
| 1996 | Alexander Pimenoff | Finland |
| 1997 | Attila Taçoy | Turkey |
| 1998 | not awarded | |
| 1999 | Bertrand Piccard | Switzerland |
| 1999 | Brian Jones | United Kingdom |
| 2000 | Eilif Ness | Cyprus |
| 2001 | not awarded | |
| 2002 | Steve Fossett | USA |
| 2003 | not awarded | |
| 2004 | Jon Johanson | Australia |
| 2005 | Richard Meredith-Hardy | United Kingdom |
| 2006 | Victor Smolin | Russia |
| 2007 | Eugene Cernan | USA |
| 2008 | Jiří Kobrle | Czech Republic |
| 2009 | Barron Hilton | USA |
| 2010 | David Hempleman-Adams | United Kingdom |
| 2011 | John Dickenson (aviator) | Australia |
| 2012 | Mikhail Mamistov | Russia |
| 2014 | William Moyes | Australia |
| 2015 | Hans Åkerstedt | Sweden |
| 2016 | not awarded | |
| 2017 | not awarded | |
| 2018 | not awarded | |
| 2019 | Domina Jalbert | USA |
| 2020 | Hermann Trimmel | Austria |
| 2021 | not awarded | |
| 2022 | not awarded | |
| 2023 | not awarded |