Raisbeck Engineering founder receives Living Legends of Aviation Award

January 31, 2008 - Los Angeles, California, USA

Raisbeck Engineering Founder James Raisbeck has received the Lifetime Aviation Entrepreneur Living Legends of Aviation award in honor of his contributions in the field of aviation and aeronautics spanning a 50 year period.

The honor was bestowed at the annual dinner and awards banquet, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles California, January 24th. The Living Legends of Aviation program was organized and is sponsored by Airport Journals Chief Editor, Jerry Lips.

Raisbeck, already a member of the Living Legends group of 80 elected members, was chosen to be recognized for his lifetime virtual catalogue of aerodynamic design contributions to commercial, business, and general aviation aircraft. Among them were the Mark II wing and subsequent drag reduction systems for the Learjet family, the Sabreliner 65 Supercritical wing, 727 hush-kits, and a whole host of improvements for the King Air family.

Raisbeck’s acceptance speech expressed gratitude to the many in the room responsible for helping him on the road to success, including Cliff Robertson, Clay Lacy, Dee Howard, Bob Hoover, Joe Clark, and Bruce McCaw. Others receiving individual recognition at the banquet were Dr. Forrest Bird and former Senator George McGovern, who both received the Freedom of Flight award; John Travolta, Ambassador of Aviation award; Pete Bunce, Aviation Industry Leader of the Year award; and Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Aviation Entrepreneur of the Year award.

The latest inductee was Bob Lutz, known mostly for his automotive work at Chrysler and General Motors, but also heavily involved in aviation. Interesting anecdotal talks were given by Legend members George McGovern and John Travolta.

Mr. Raisbeck is an AIAA Associate Fellow. In 1979, he was honored by Purdue University, receiving their Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award, and again in 1999 with Purdue's Outstanding Aerospace Engineer Award. That same year he was honored with the AIAA Commercial Aviation Technical Achievement Award. In 2000, he was awarded Professional Pilot Magazine's Aviation Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2002, The NBAA awarded Raisbeck its Lifetime Achievement Award. Seattle's Hope Heart Institute honored James and his wife Sherry in 2003 with their “Wings of Hope” annual award for leadership in philanthropy, and in May 2005, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Purdue University. In May 2007, the Raisbecks' were honored with the 69th annual Seattle/King County First Citizen Award recognizing their extraordinary philanthropy and commitment to local communities, both in human services and the arts. The Museum of Flight in October 2007 honored James with entry into the Pacific Northwest Pathfinders Group, recognizing his lifetime contributions to aviation.

Raisbeck Engineering continues in the footsteps of its founder in the search for and implementation of advanced aerodynamic technologies into the existing fleets of corporate, business, and commercial turbine-powered aircraft. To view the entire article, visit http://www.raisbeck.com/LL_Raisbeck.pdf.

Raisbeck Engineering was founded in 1973 and continues to dedicate itself to improving the productivity, safety and performance of business and commercial jet-powered aircraft worldwide. More company information can be found on this Web site.