Alethea Dice
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2012
- Messages
- 2,477
- Reaction score
- 10
So from your first link [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Aerospace_Industries"]Israel Aerospace Industries - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame], Blomquist, (that I didn't understand at first), Israel Aerospace is wholly owned by the government of Israel. It was founded in 1953 as Bedek Aviation Company and recruited Al Schwimmer as the company's founder and first president.
Then look at the president.
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Schwimmer"]Al Schwimmer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
Then look at the president.
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Schwimmer"]Al Schwimmer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
Schwimmer was born in New York in 1917 to Jewish parents who had emigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe. He never used his given birth name of Adolph, preferring the nickname "Al".
In 1939, Schwimmer began his aerospace career at Lockheed Martin as an engineer and also received his civilian pilot license.
During Israel's War of Independence, Schwimmer used his World War II experience and his contacts to smuggle surplus war planes to Israel. Using circuitous routes, he also recruited the pilots and crews to fly the planes to Israel. Many of these men became the nucleus of the Israeli Air Force.[3]
In 1949, Schwimmer returned to the United States and, in 1950, he was convicted in the United States of violating the US Neutrality Acts for smuggling the planes into Israel. Schwimmer was stripped of his voting rights and veteran benefits and fined $10,000, but did not receive a prison sentence. In 2000, he received a pardon from President Bill Clinton.
In the early 1950s, Schwimmer, who was running an aircraft maintenance company in Burbank, California, was approached by David Ben-Gurion, Israel's then prime minister, who asked Schwimmer to return to Israel and establish an aircraft company for commercial and military purposes.[3] Schwimmer acceded to Ben Gurion's request and founded Israel Aerospace Industries, of which he became the first CEO.[2]