Program Chairman
At the program's inception EAA decided to recruit a well-known person to act as Chairman and raise the profile of the program. The program's founding chairman was actor Cliff Robertson who served in that capacity from 1992 to 1994. Robertson was succeeded in 1994 by retired USAF General and test pilot Chuck Yeager, the first person to intentionally fly faster than the speed of sound. Yeager stepped down as chairman in 2004 and, in March 2004, actor and pilot Harrison Ford became Chairman of the Young Eagles program. Ford has flown more than 300 Young Eagles in several airplanes. Ford finished his five-year term in 2009.
In September 2009, Captain Chesley Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles who became famous in the US Airways Flight 1549 Hudson River ditching on 15 January 2009, were named as the program's new co-chairmen.
Read more about this topic: Young Eagles
Famous quotes containing the words program and/or chairman:
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—For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
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—Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965)