Last night, the Aero Club of Southern California (ACSC) awarded Steven Udvar-Hazy the 34th Howard Hughes Memorial Award for his lifetime contributions to aviation. Udvar-Hazy spearheaded aircraft leasing services with his International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), which he founded in 1973 and sold to American International Group in 1990 for $1.3 billion. ILFC now owns and manages more than 1,000 commercial jets. In 2010, Udvar-Hazy formed Air Lease Corporation, which has already ordered 300 Boeing and Airbus jets.
Udvar-Hazy’s great success enabled him to open the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near the Washington Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., which features a huge collection of famous aircraft, including the Messerschmitt Me 262, SR-71, Concorde, B-29 Enola Gay and Space Shuttle Discovery.
