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Najeeb Elias Halaby

Jeeb Halaby almost didn't make it.  "I persuaded my uncle to pay $100 for these flying lessons during the depression.  The instructor said he would solo me for that much.  He did, but the next day I came back to the field, and his plane was in hock.  There it was, a red tag right on the propeller," Halaby recalled with a burst of laughter.  Making it has become SOP.  He is now president of Pan American World Airways.

During World War II, he was a Lockheed test pilot and later became assistant chief of the fighter branch, Naval Air Test Center, and one of the founders - and first chief instructor, Navy Test Pilot School.  Following the war, a very youthful Halaby became State Department aviation intelligence advisor, and deputy assistant Secretary of Defense.  He worked with James Forestal and helped organize NATO.

In January, 1961, with his mother and President Kennedy looking on, Jeeb Halaby became Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency.  He stayed until July 1, 1965, and raised all kinds of hell for the betterment of the flying public.  "They were the safest years in aviation history, an era of the best labor relations, and a period of good profitability for the airlines."  Now, and for the immediate future, the aviation industry has got to attract more youthful talent.  "We've just got to replace marvellous men with modern management!"

[[image - small drawing of a propeller]]

Najeeb Elias Halaby:  born Dallas, Texas, November 19, 1915.

[[image No. 63 - black & white photograph of Jeeb Halaby standing in a P-38 cockpit]]

[[image No. 64 - black & white photograph of Jeeb Halaby (right} talking to two children]]

[[caption]]  Jeeb Halaby, Lockheed test pilot, in the California sun, after a 1942 flight in a P-38 (63).  Months of effort were devoted to learning high altitude effects on automatic turbo super-charger regulators.  As FAA Administrator (64) Halaby always had time to "carry the aviation cause to young people." [[/caption]]