Career
He was a graduate of The Leelanau School, a boarding school in Glen Arbor Township Leelanau County, Michigan, and is enshrined in that school's Hall of Fame. An alumnus of Stanford University (1937) and Yale Law School (1940), he served as a U.S. Navy test pilot in World War II. On May 1, 1945 Halaby made history by making the first transcontinental jet flight in US history. Halaby took off from Muroc AFB, California and landed in Patuxent, Maryland in 5 hours and 40 minutes.
After the war he served as the U.S. State Department's civil aviation advisor to King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, helping the king develop Saudi Arabian Airlines. Next he worked as an aide to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal in the late 1940s, then helped Paul Nitze write NSC 68.
He joined Laurance Rockefeller's family office in 1953 reviewing investments in civil aviation.
From 1961 to 1965, he served as the second Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, appointed by President John F. Kennedy. Halaby was a proponent for the creation of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which occurred during his time in the Lyndon Johnson administration. From 1969 to 1972, he served as CEO, and chairman after 1970, of Pan Am. As Pan Am chairman, he was present at the christening of the first Boeing 747 aircraft.
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