Jack J. Pelton is an American

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

businessman who is chairman of the

Experimental Aircraft Association The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Since its inception, it has grown internationally with over 300,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapters worldwide. ...

(EAA) since 2012 and its

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

since 2015. He was CEO of

Cessna Aircraft Company Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing ...

from 2004 to 2011, a subsidiary of Textron Inc and now a brand of

Textron Aviation Textron Aviation Inc. is the general aviation business unit of the conglomerate Textron that was formed in March 2014 following the acquisition of Beech Holdings which included the Beechcraft and Hawker Aircraft businesses. The new business uni ...

. Before becoming Cessna's CEO, Pelton was its Senior Vice President of Product Engineering since 2000 and prior to that, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Programs at Fairchild Dornier. Previous to Fairchild, he worked at

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own ...

for over two decades. Pelton grew up in an aviation family in

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...

. His father flew in the

U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during World War II and was an early member in the local EAA chapter in Riverside. His mother was also a pilot. Soon after Pelton was named CEO of Cessna, it was revealed in 2004 that his resume included references to education received from

Hamilton University Hamilton University was an School accreditation, unaccredited institution based in Evanston, Wyoming, Evanston, Wyoming. According to the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, it was first established in Hawaii as American State University.

, which ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...

'' discovered was a

diploma mill A diploma mill or degree mill is a business that sells illegitimate diplomas or academic degrees, respectively. The term ''diploma mill'' is also used pejoratively to describe any educational institution with low standards for admission and gradua ...

. Neither his undergraduate or graduate degrees in Aerospace Engineering were earned from an accredited school. Temporarily embarrassed by the revelation, Textron released a statement proclaiming that Pelton was chosen for his 30-year-long career in leadership and not for his faked diplomas. Pelton testified in favor of a property tax increase to build an aviation training facility that would benefit Cessna at an August 9, 2006 Sedgwick County Commission meeting. At a December 12, 2006 meeting of the Wichita City Council, Cessna applied for

industrial revenue bonds A revenue bond is a special type of municipal bond distinguished by its guarantee of repayment solely from revenues generated by a specified revenue-generating entity associated with the purpose of the bonds, rather than from a tax. Unlike genera ...

that include an exemption from paying property tax on property purchased with IRB proceeds. In March 2008,

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Governor

Kathleen Sebelius Kathleen Sebelius (; née Gilligan, born May 15, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 21st United States secretary of health and human services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebelius was instrumenta ...

appointed Pelton to lead the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group. On May 2, 2011, Textron announced that Pelton retired from Cessna as its chairman, president and CEO "effective immediately". The aviation news media noted Pelton's hasty retirement. ''AvWeb'' editor-in-chief Russ Niles questioned "who retires 'effective immediately' at age 52 on a Monday morning when the boss is in town?" and speculated that it was related to a possible demand from Textron for cuts to Cessna after a first-quarter 2011 loss of US $38 million. On October 22, 2012, Pelton became Chairman of the Board of EAA and its annual convention, AirVenture Oshkosh. This marked the first time in the EAA's history that a Chairman was elected from outside the organization's founding Poberezny family (

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

and

Tom Poberezny Thomas Paul Poberezny (October 3, 1946 – July 25, 2022) was an American aerobatic world champion aviator, as well as chairman of the annual Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, Fly-In and Convention (now named AirVe ...

). By the end of 2012, Pelton was also managing director of Aviation Alliance, a partnership of ten individuals and companies that intends to sell remanufacturered

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

-powered

Cessna 421 The Cessna 421 Golden Eagle is an American six or seven seat twin-engined light transport aircraft, developed in the 1960s by Cessna as a pressurized version of the earlier Cessna 411. Development The Cessna 421 was first produced in May 1967 ...

s under the name Aviation Alliance Excalibur. On November 9, 2015, Pelton was named CEO of the Experimental Aircraft Association. The CEO position at EAA had been vacant since November 2012. He has been on past boards such as the

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, its main building ...

, the

National Business Aircraft Association The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is a professional association and lobbying group for private business aviation. Overview NBAA is set up as a 501(c)(6) non-profit entity. NBAA organizes conferences and seminars. Edward M. ...

(NBAA), and the

General Aviation Manufacturers Association The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) is the industry trade association representing general aviation (non-military & non-airliner) aircraft manufacturers and related enterprises, chiefly in the United States.General Aviation Manufac ...

(GAMA), acting as its chairman in 2006. Pelton was given the 2008 EAA Freedom of Flight Award and is an honoree of the

Living Legends of Aviation The Living Legends of Aviation is an organization that recognizes accomplished people in aviation and aerospace including entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, engineers, astronauts, record breakers, pilots who have become celebrities and ...

. In 2017, he received the

National Aeronautic Association The National Aeronautic Association of the United States (NAA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and a founding member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Founded in 1905, it is the oldest national aviation club in the Uni ...

(NAA)’s Distinguished Statesman of Aviation Award and was inducted into the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame.Kansas Aviation Museum - Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame Inductees
Retrieved 5 October 2022.

References

External links

Jack Pelton biography from the EAA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelton, Jack J. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American aerospace businesspeople American chief executives of manufacturing companies Businesspeople from Kansas Cessna Experimental Aircraft Association People from Riverside, California People from Wichita, Kansas People using unaccredited degrees