You've missed out Icarus & Leonardo Da V. The first was a gun pilot who disobeyed flight safety issues: the second was an engineer par excellence.
For me the biggest problem you have is to design an inspirational talk to potential pilots & engineers. They are different animals and enthused by very different elements of aviation. There are many different types of pilots from airforce, crop sprayers, biz-jets & airlines. They too are motivated by different dreams. Engineers the same; those working at Rolls Royce design, those at a major airline and those specialised in light and antique a/c. Not so easy; it needs to be very general, amusing, inspirational with anecdotes to make it reality.