Johnny Hanson /

Chronicle

Pilots Matthew Caldwell, Ian Howe and Paschal Alexander talk in front of a Continental 737 named after Capt. Marlon Green, the first African American commercial pilot, at Continental’s Hanger E at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. After nine years and more than 3,000 hours of flight time of flying multi-engine planes in the Air Force in the 1950s, Capt. Green was rejected by every commercial airline when he applied for jobs as a pilot because of the color of his skin. Green won a landmark legal battle where he was later hired by Continental Airlines. Green died last year at the age of 80 in Denver, Colo.