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If the name Lassiter Aircraft doesn't ring a bell, it is not surprising, since the company never got round to building any aircraft. Its only claim to fame, if anything, was to contribute to the bankruptcy of railroad giant Penn Central Transportation.
Lassiter Aircraft was founded in the late 1960s by Olbert F. Lassiter, a retired Brigadier General and former president of Executive Jet Aviation of Columbus, Ohio. While EJA attempted to transform the Temco Pinto into a small business jet, Lassiter Aircraft was set up with the prospect of launching an elegant fiberglass supersonic business jet on the market... but that was not to be.
Gen. Lassiter was arrested, along with his two accomplices, David C. Bevan (former Chairman of the Penn Central finance committee) and Charles J. Hodge (former chairman of investment and banking firm F. I. Du Pont-Glore Forgan) and charged with conspiring to "establish a world-wide air freight and passenger system" that would benefit a travel agency owned and controlled by them, their relatives and friends. The three also allegedly conspired to "manipulate over $85 million in Penn Central investments to benefit a private investment group" owned by them, their relatives and friends.
Penn Central spent $21 million to assist in enlargement of Executive Jet Aviation, while providing private jet taxi service to executives on a subscription basis. The investment in Executive Jet was aimed at providing entry by the railroad into the air passenger and air cargo transportation industry, "even though Bevan realized fully that a railroad's control of an air carrier without approval of the Civil Aeronautics Board was in direct violation of the law." There was "an astonishing lack of fiduciary concern and control" by the Pennsylvania Railroad board of directors over its investment to Executive Jet.
Commercial banks "made massive amounts of credit available to Executive Jet for what appeared to be highly questionable — if not at times illegal — activities." The "steady flow of Penn Central money to Executive Jet" was maintained by Lassiter's "procuring young women" to accompany his accomplices Bevan and Hodge "on various junkets in the United States and Europe." In 1968, a former Executive Jet employee acknowledged that at Lassiter's request he had "provided female companions" in order to relieve the pressure Bevan and Hodge were exerting on Lassiter.
The Penn Central Transportation Co. reported an 11-month operating loss in 1971 of $248 million. From being the sixth largest nonfinancial corporation in America, Penn Central became "the largest single business failure in history" and filed for reorganization in June 1970. In addition to the conspiration, General Lassiter was charged with misappropriating more than $130,000 of Executive Jet funds, siphoning them off to the Lassiter Aircraft Corp., his "research firm" based in California.
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Lassiter Aircraft was founded in the late 1960s by Olbert F. Lassiter, a retired Brigadier General and former president of Executive Jet Aviation of Columbus, Ohio. While EJA attempted to transform the Temco Pinto into a small business jet, Lassiter Aircraft was set up with the prospect of launching an elegant fiberglass supersonic business jet on the market... but that was not to be.
Gen. Lassiter was arrested, along with his two accomplices, David C. Bevan (former Chairman of the Penn Central finance committee) and Charles J. Hodge (former chairman of investment and banking firm F. I. Du Pont-Glore Forgan) and charged with conspiring to "establish a world-wide air freight and passenger system" that would benefit a travel agency owned and controlled by them, their relatives and friends. The three also allegedly conspired to "manipulate over $85 million in Penn Central investments to benefit a private investment group" owned by them, their relatives and friends.
Penn Central spent $21 million to assist in enlargement of Executive Jet Aviation, while providing private jet taxi service to executives on a subscription basis. The investment in Executive Jet was aimed at providing entry by the railroad into the air passenger and air cargo transportation industry, "even though Bevan realized fully that a railroad's control of an air carrier without approval of the Civil Aeronautics Board was in direct violation of the law." There was "an astonishing lack of fiduciary concern and control" by the Pennsylvania Railroad board of directors over its investment to Executive Jet.
Commercial banks "made massive amounts of credit available to Executive Jet for what appeared to be highly questionable — if not at times illegal — activities." The "steady flow of Penn Central money to Executive Jet" was maintained by Lassiter's "procuring young women" to accompany his accomplices Bevan and Hodge "on various junkets in the United States and Europe." In 1968, a former Executive Jet employee acknowledged that at Lassiter's request he had "provided female companions" in order to relieve the pressure Bevan and Hodge were exerting on Lassiter.
The Penn Central Transportation Co. reported an 11-month operating loss in 1971 of $248 million. From being the sixth largest nonfinancial corporation in America, Penn Central became "the largest single business failure in history" and filed for reorganization in June 1970. In addition to the conspiration, General Lassiter was charged with misappropriating more than $130,000 of Executive Jet funds, siphoning them off to the Lassiter Aircraft Corp., his "research firm" based in California.
Main sources:
See also:
