The Kennedy Era and the Legacy of Flight
I am mourning the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy this morning. As a child of the 1960s (I was born in 1959) the Kennedys have always been part of my consciousness with regard to who Americans are and what they can be.
As a boy, with a cheap Sears telescope and a Polaroid camera, I took pictures of the moon, inspired by President John Kennedy’s challenge in May 1961 that Americans should fly to the moon and explore it by the end of the decade. Of course we accomplished the president’s goal early and the whole world cheered the brave pilots of Apollo 11 who in 1969, ably flew to the most distant place we could yet reach. It was a singular human accomplishment that has not been surpassed in over 40 years. No country but ours has ever flown man to the moon, to walk there.
As I look back on it now, as I near the age of 50, I realize that the event is so historic and memorable because it happened at the intersection of leadership, science, technology, education, dreams, and daring, and exemplified to the world the better nature of Americans.
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Tale of the Tagues: An Airline Story, Part 1
When John P. Tague was promoted by United Airlines CEO Glenn Tilton to the post of President last month, it signaled an ironic rise in the career of an executive who may have been instrumental in the downward spirals of four failed airlines.
John Tague, born in 1961, is the son of Irving T. Tague, a memorable figure in U.S. aviation history who got his start as a Pan Am ramp worker in Alaska and was well-known later for leadership at three legendary U.S. carriers: Pan American, Hughes Airwest, and Midway Airlines.
Irving Tague worked his way up through the management ranks at Pan Am, eventually establishing himself as a master planner, scheduler, and economic analyst. While at Pan Am in the early 1970s, Tague’s skills as an operations manager were evident to principals from the aviation consulting firm of Simat, Helliesen, and Eichner (SH&E), who at the time also had billionaire businessman Howard Hughes as their client.
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