Aviation

Howard W. Willoughby, the city's director of aviation and manager of Philadelphia International and Northeast Philadelphia Airports, plans to announce tomorrow that he will retire in about five or six months, sources within and outside the city government said yesterday. Willoughby, 61, has managed the aviation division, a part of the city Commerce Department, since May 1980. Willoughby was under no pressure to quit and approached Commerce Department officials with the idea of retiring, according to the sources.

James Hayden Chenet, 71, of Havertown, a former Army pilot and prisoner of war whose abiding interest in flight led to an aviation insurance career that ended this year when he was diagnosed with cancer, went home from the hospital Wednesday and died peacefully Thanksgiving Day, surrounded by his wife and family. Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Chenet served in Europe with the Army Air Corps during World War II. He entered the military as a second lieutenant and came out a captain, recalled Ruth Gillespie Chenet, his wife of 45 years.

Saying that increasing the airport's flight capacity is his major challenge, James C. De Long, an airport manager for the last 17 years, was introduced yesterday as director of aviation and manager of Philadelphia International Airport. Mayor Goode, appearing at an airport news conference to introduce De Long, said the new director fulfills an instruction the mayor gave city Commerce Director Charles P. Pizzi to find "the most qualified airport professional in the country. " De Long's appointment is effective July 1. He replaces Howard W. Willoughby, 62, who retired in April.

The Royal Canadian Mint has issued the fifth and sixth of its series of silver dollars celebrating the first 50 years of Canada's aviation history. The new proof coins show the Canadian version of the JN-4 Canuck, a plane designed by Glenn Curtiss, and the Gipsy Moth built by the de Havilland Corp. Sir Frank Wilton Baillie is portrayed with the Curtiss plane, and aviator Murton A. Seymour is portrayed with the Gipsy Moth. Seymour was the first pilot trained by the Aero Club of British Columbia.

Flags and apparel with aircraft themes are taking off for Donna Jablonski. Although Jablonski, 42, has had her private pilot's license for more than six years, it wasn't until last March that her avocation inspired a full-time job. Instead of taking to the skies, though, Jablonski has her fledgling business, Flying Colors, firmly grounded in her family's Marlton home. "It's an ideal way to combine my enthusiasm for flying with a desire to operate a home-based business," said Jablonski of her mail-order company that sells flags featuring common aircraft, as well as apparel sporting aviation-related and other designs.

James N. Jenkins 3d, 53, of Holland, a 14-year Army veteran who became a corporate aviation director, died Monday of a heart attack after a workout at Mercer County Airport near Trenton. He had been scheduled for a cardiovascular stress test tomorrow. Mr. Jenkins, who had a rating of airline transport pilot for rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, was chief pilot for Johnson & Johnson Co. in New Brunswick, N.J., from 1986 to 1998, when he was named director of the company's aviation department.

IF THAT BROKEN thing had wheels or moving parts or plugged into an electrical socket, Charlie Tagg could fix it. It didn't matter if it was a car, a TV set, a radio or toy train, his daughter Chris Jakielaszek said. "Dad found enjoyment tinkering and fixing a wide variety of items," she said. "He liked the challenge of making something work again and helping someone. He never charged anyone for the work he did. " Charles W. Tagg, a retired aerospace and aviation engineer, died April 29 of a heart ailment.

Ousted aviation director Alfred Testa Jr. yesterday sued the city, blaming Mayor Street for dumping him from a $150,000-a-year job that Testa believes was his to keep for several years. Testa, suing in federal court and represented by Richard A. Sprague, one of the area's top trial lawyers, is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city, the mayor and the mayor's outgoing chief of staff, Stephanie Franklin-Suber. His claims include alleged civil rights violations, breach of contract and defamation.

Amelia Earhart, the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh - all are known far and wide for displaying enormous pluck in airplanes. There is also Florence Johnson. Technically, Johnson, a frail woman of 98 who lives in a Haddonfield convalescent home, is not an aviator. She never chanced a transatlantic flight and knows little of navigation. Much of her life was spent quietly raising her children. But Flo Johnson earned some mention, however brief, in the annals of aviation.

At the 18th-century farmhouse and grounds once known as Wingover, spirits will be flying high again. Wingover, now called Oakhurst, is the site of the 1996 Art and Design Showhouse, a benefit for Chestnut Hill HealthCare and Chestnut Hill Community Fund. The show house opens today and runs until Oct. 27. Wingover's former owners, the late aviation adventurers Connie and Alfred "Abby" Wolf, were known for their fly-in parties, which at times involved up to 150 airplanes landing on the Wolfs' runway, across the street from Wings Field.

Lewis Terry Hatcher, 90, of West Chester, who as a pilot flew 24 bombing missions over Europe during World War II, died Friday, May 3, at Paoli Memorial Hospital. Mr. Hatcher enlisted in November 1942 and trained as a B-17 pilot. He served with the 15th Air Force, at one point from a base in Foggia, Italy. He and his fellow airmen completed 24 bombing missions over Germany, Austria, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Italy. But it was the 19th mission, on March 16, 1945, in which he bombed the Schwechat oil refinery in Austria, that he called his "longest day. " The plane took off early that morning with a 6,000-pound payload.

IF THAT BROKEN thing had wheels or moving parts or plugged into an electrical socket, Charlie Tagg could fix it. It didn't matter if it was a car, a TV set, a radio or toy train, his daughter Chris Jakielaszek said. "Dad found enjoyment tinkering and fixing a wide variety of items," she said. "He liked the challenge of making something work again and helping someone. He never charged anyone for the work he did. " Charles W. Tagg, a retired aerospace and aviation engineer, died April 29 of a heart ailment.

JOHANNESBURG - Laurie Kay, a South African pilot best known for flying a Boeing 747 passenger jet low over a Johannesburg stadium before the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, has died at age 67. Kay had suffered a heart attack Wednesday at the offices of the anti-rhinoceros poaching unit in Kruger National Park, South Africa's showcase game reserve, according to the country's parks service. Kay flew helicopters on patrols aimed at stopping poachers and was also doing technical work on a new anti-poaching surveillance aircraft, said Ike Phaahla, a parks spokesman.

President Obama's message to jet-setters: Pay your fair share. The president ruffled some high-flying feathers when he said that the United States should end tax breaks for the owners of corporate jets during Wednesday night's debate with Mitt Romney. "My attitude is, if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it," he said, discussing ways to reduce the federal deficit. Obama was referring to the accelerated depreciation of business jets.

J. Lloyd Abbot Jr., 94, a retired rear admiral who was a naval aviator during World War II and later commanded the first regularly scheduled wintertime support flights to Antarctica in the 1960s, died Aug. 10 of congestive heart failure in Alexandria, Va. Except for the occasional emergency medical-evacuation flight, no airplanes flew in or out of Antarctica during the harsh winter. In coordination with the National Science Foundation, he organized the first scheduled winter flight to Antarctica in June 1967.

Colin Marshall, 78, the British-born, American-trained executive whose flair for marketing was credited for the turnaround of British Airways starting in the 1980s, died Thursday. No details were given on the cause. As chief executive from 1983 to 1995 and chairman from 1993 to 2004, Mr. Marshall oversaw the transformation of British Airways into a premiere aviation brand. Among other steps, he emphasized customer service with a program called "Putting People First. " He said he had firsthand knowledge of the airline's weaknesses, since he had been a frequent trans-Atlantic flier from 1971 to 1981 when he was a New York-based executive for Avis.

FOR MT. AIRY'S Eugene J. Richardson Jr., the last few months have been a whirlwind. Manhattan parties with George Lucas, Spike Lee, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr. He's been an honored guest at several movie screenings, a couple of premieres, walked the red carpet, had his photo taken, given interviews, stood for applause and ovations. It's all well-deserved. And about 60 years overdue. All the recent excitement in Richardson's life surrounds the release of the new movie "Red Tails," an action picture celebrating the service of African-American fighter pilots in World War II, the so-called Tuskegee Airmen, including men like Richardson.

NEW YORK - Boarding an airplane has never been safer. The last 10 years have been the best in the country's aviation history, with 153 fatalities. That's two deaths for every 100 million passengers on commercial flights, according to an Associated Press analysis of government accident data. The improvement is remarkable. Just a decade earlier, passengers were 10 times more likely to die aboard a U.S. plane. The risk of death was even greater during the start of the jet age; 1,696 people died - 133 out of every 100 million passengers - between 1962 and 1971.

Qantas Airways was expected to resume flying Monday after an Australian court intervened in a labor dispute that led the airline to ground its entire fleet over the weekend. By the time the labor-relations court acted, several hundred flights had been canceled and tens of thousands of passengers were stranded around the world. Some airline industry experts say Qantas' surprise grounding of its entire fleet Saturday could cause many travelers to book future trips on other airlines.

Betty Skelton, 85, an audacious aviatrix and stock-car racer often called the "First Lady of Firsts" for her record-setting feats in airplanes and automobiles during the 1940s and '50s, died of cancer Aug. 31 in The Villages, Fla. She held "more combined aircraft and automotive records than anyone in history," according to a biography on the museum's website. A three-time women's international aerobatics champion, she was the first woman to execute the "inverted ribbon cut," a breathtaking maneuver in which a pilot flies upside down about 12 feet from the ground to slice a ribbon strung between two poles.