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Jerome Fox Lederer

"It seems that all my life I have been at war with complacency.  Combating complacency is not an easy thing--even when it relates to human life inside an aircraft."

The private war of Jerry Lederer has served the public good.

He has a boundless record of devoting his energy and talent to the cause of flight safety: in 1940 he became the first Director of the Safety Bureau of the Civil Aeronautics Board, helping to advance the requirements of accident investigation; during the holocaust of World War II he helped train 10,000 pilots and airmen for the Air Transport Command; in 1947 he founded the Flight Safety Foundation and has served as its Managing Director, as well as Director of the Cornell-Guggenheim Aviation Safety Center.

"In those early days when we talked safety it was like exploring some unspeakable disease.  Maybe the name Flight Safety Foundation was not a wise choice." Lederer says with a touch of pleasure in his sandy voice.

The domestic pioneering of FSF took on international meaning when a brilliant program was conceived in 1947, whereby the exchange of safety bulletins and technical data became worldwide.

"It has been a long pull.  Mind you, 22 years just to double the size of the Exit signs in commercial aircraft."  The current Lederer "pull" is a giant one: he serves as Director of Manned Space Flight Safety, NASA.

[[image - small drawing of a propeller]]

Jerome Fox Lederer: born New York City, September 26, 1902.

[[image No. 90 - black & white photograph of Jerry Lederer and two friends in front of Douglas M-1 plane]]

[[image No. 91 - black & white photograph of Jerry Lederer and C. R. Smith]]


[[caption]]Jerry Lederer, left, and C. R. Smith, former president, American Airlines, and now Secretary of Commerce (91).  In front of Douglas M-1, 1927, Lederer, left, and friends from U.S. Air Mail days (90).
[[/caption]]


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