Professional Pilot, May 2017

ALEX REMEMBERS a personal memoir Alex Kvassays 3 decades in aviation have brought success and many memories U pon discharge from the US Army I badly needed a civilian job But with a degree in Law from a Hungarian university and having been a sergeant in the US Army I was not really qualified for anything With the help of a New York employment agency I was invited by Beech Aircraft Corporation to a job interview in Wichita Before going I asked US Navy Commander Henry Holz who worked at the desk next to me Is this a Navy aircraft that lands on beaches His answer was No there was a real Mr Walter Beech During my interview at Beech I confessed I knew absolutely nothing about airplanes My only previous flying experience was hitching rides in my PFC uniform from 60 PROFESSIONAL PILOT May 2017 Offutt Air Base in Nebraska to Washington DC But no one at Beech actually cared about my lack of aviation knowledge they just needed someone who could travel and speak foreign languages I spoke a few languages including English ze bestest Beech officials said they could teach me how to fly easier than teaching foreign languages to a local Kansan My job consisted mostly in visiting Beech dealers all over the world Beech was not organized for factory people to make direct sales In my 12 years at Beechcraft I directly sold only 1 aircraft a Beech Model 18 purchased by Surinam Airways And I made that sale only because no one else at Beech knew where Suriname was or that the country even existed and therefore there was no Beech dealer there On weekends I also used to ferry single engine aircraft to New Orleans New York or San Francisco where they were crated and shipped overseas I did this just to build up some flying time I probably would have stayed at Beech for the rest of my career had Bill Lear not come to Wichita to build his Learjets I was introduced to Bill Lear by Harvey Anselm who was a good friend of mine from my days at Beech and an early defector to Learjet Bill subsequently asked me to start an international sales department for his company Several Beech executives had already joined Learjet including my friends Jim Greenwood and Al Higdon Those of us departing Beech were called the Italian boatsmen Gone to Lear I sold Learjets directly to the Onassis Thyssen Guinness and Bin Laden families also to King Hussein of Jordan Alex Kvassay attended school in his native Budapest Hungary To gain his US citizenship Alex enlisted in the US Army where he served for 3 years By Alex Kvassay Former Beech Learjet and Canadair Sales Executive In the 1950s and early 1960s Alex Kvassay left was a member of an established group selling Beech aircraft outside the US through a strong distributor dealer network Other managers on that team were L R Dwight Hornberger and Dick Showalter and Chief Michael Neuburger After both had departed Learjet Bill Lear L invited Alex Kvassay R to join him in selling Learstars later marketed as Challengers by Canadair