A.L. Ueltschi, Chairman

Al Ueltschi recognized a need in the early 1950s. The number of business aircraft was growing rapidly, but the pilots for those aircraft had no access to the training required to operate them safely. Ueltschi’s response was to found the company that would become FlightSafety International, now the world leader in aviation safety training.

Ueltschi had been flying since age 16, when he soloed at an airfield not far from his family’s dairy farm near Frankfort, Ky. He had been an entrepreneur nearly as long. Young Ueltschi opened a hamburger restaurant, the "Little Hawk," where he sold burgers for a nickel, then parlayed his entrepreneurial skills from that venture into a $3,500 loan to buy an open-cockpit plane. With that plane, he began his lifelong passion: teaching others to fly.

But he didn’t confine himself to teaching. The Depression was still in full swing and it was tough to make a living as a pilot. So he did whatever he could to keep flying. He took people for rides for $1, and he barnstormed around the country. "Folks came out to see if the fool kid would kill himself, and like a fool, on several occasions I almost obliged."

The School of Hard Landings

Ueltschi attended the University of Kentucky for a time, but soon moved on to become chief pilot for Queen City Flying in Cincinnati, where he continued to broaden his flight experience.

On one occasion, that experience got a little broader than he bargained for. Training pilots for the agency that would become the Federal Aviation Administration, he liked to give them a thrill with a little aerobatics. It was lots of fun until one of his students inverted their open cockpit plane and Ueltschi found himself in freefall. He pulled his parachute cord just in time to make a hard landing in a field.

In 1941, still in his early 20s, he joined Pan American World Airways, then the world’s premier airline. Over the next 27 years, he put in thousands of hours in the cockpit. For much of that time, he was personal pilot for Pan Am president and founder Juan Trippe, who initially used a fast, converted WWII aircraft as his personal transport. That plane became one of the models for the business aviation industry.

Identifying a Safety Need

But Ueltschi realized that pilots for the growing fleet of business aircraft didn’t have access to the sort of formal training he’d received as a commercial pilot. That insight led to the founding of FlightSafety, established at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in 1951.

Over the years, Ueltschi has worked to diversify FlightSafety. The FlightSafety umbrella now encompasses 40-plus FlightSafety Learning Centers across North America and Europe; FlightSafety Academy for training airline and corporate pilots and instructors; MarineSafety International for the maritime industry; and FlightSafety’s flight simulation and military training divisions.

Ueltschi’s aviation interests also led to his involvement, since the early 1980s, with Project Orbis. This aircraft-based nonprofit teaching hospital travels to less-developed regions to teach surgical procedures and sight-saving techniques. Ueltschi, long-time chairman of Orbis International, has advised and contributed to the project since it was little more than an idea. Since 1982, Orbis has conducted treatment and training programs in 70 countries. In one year alone, ORBIS personnel trained more than 19,500 healthcare workers, treated 650,000 people for eye conditions and performed 43,000 surgeries. The Flying Eye Hospital is a central feature of Orbis. The airborne hospital is a DC-10 wide-body aircraft that has been converted into a teaching facility and ophthalmic surgical center.

A Rewarding Life

Ueltschi’s outstanding and groundbreaking contributions to aviation and aviation safety have been recognized with many awards, including some of the most esteemed available to an aviator.

• 1991, the National Business Aircraft Association Award for Meritorious Service to Aviation
  
• 1991, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Award for Extraordinary Service
  
• 1994, the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, perhaps the most prestigious of the nation’s aviation awards
  
• 1995, Aviation Week magazine’s Laurel Award
  
• 2001, inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio
  
• 2001, National Aeronautic Association Elder Statesman Award
  
• 2003, the Aero Club of New England Godfrey Cabot Award
  
• 2006, the Wings Club Distinguished Achievement Award
  
• 2006, National Business Aircraft Association introduces Albert Ueltschi Humanitarian Award