8296735531.jpg &&& ARLINGTON — Many families spend a December evening driving around admiring Christmas lights. Few experience the view that friends and family of Harry S. Kent enjoyed."He would rent an airplane and take us up at Christmastime to see the lights from above," said Susan Laird, Mr. Kent’s daughter. "He just thought it was fun to do."Mr. Kent, a retired American Airlines pilot and former naval aviator, died Tuesday of pneumonia after slipping into a diabetic coma. He was 83."He was a man of some remarkable aviation accomplishments," said Dick Atkins, director of archives for the Vought Aircraft Heritage Foundation, where Mr. Kent worked as a volunteer. "But he was such a sweet guy, and he had so much enthusiasm. He was like a big kid, always getting excited about things."Mr. Kent was born Oct. 3, 1924, in Jordan, N.Y., to Stanley Sarle Kent and Helen MacGowan Kent. After graduating from Jordan High School, he got his first real taste of aviation when he joined the Navy in 1942. He trained as a naval air cadet and became a member of a torpedo squadron in 1944-45. He continued his service in the Navy Reserve from 1951 until 1966.After the war, he attended Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., graduating in 1951. Then he joined Chance Vought Aircraft in Grand Prairie as a test pilot.Five years later, he became a pilot for American, where he stayed until he retired as a captain in 1984."He was so proud of being an American Airlines pilot," Laird said. "He was quite the captain — everybody always knew 'Captain Kent.’ "Mr. Kent flew the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-10 for American, but most of his career was spent behind the controls of the Boeing 727. He particularly enjoyed flying to London, Laird said. Mr. Kent continued his commitment to aviation after he retired, volunteering with groups like the Grey Eagles and the Lone Star Aero Club.About four years ago, he asked Atkins whether he could pitch in for the Vought Aircraft Heritage Foundation, which preserves and restores historic airplanes manufactured by Vought."He had started his career there, so he felt it was sort of like going back to the beginning," Laird said.Mr. Kent volunteered to create an index for about 5,000 rolls of microfilm that contained aircraft documents and photos. It was an enormous project, Atkins said, but Mr. Kent threw himself into the work, spending several days a week reviewing and cataloging spool after spool of microfilm and entering the index onto computer spreadsheets."He always found it interesting and discovered all sorts of interesting things in those documents," he said.In his honor, Atkins said, the foundation’s archive room will bear a plaque with Mr. Kent’s name.Other survivors include daughters Deborah Kent Herterich and Kristin Sarah Kent; a sister, Janice Culver of North Carolina; and six grandchildren. Funeral 1 p.m. today at First Presbyterian Church of Arlington