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01 Dec 1999

Ceiling Unlimited

Topics: Engineering-Aerospace
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Carl Chen (24th OPM) has come a long way. The Long Beach, California, Press-Telegram (September 13, 1999) reported that when Chen was four years old, his family fled mainland China for Taiwan. In 1968, he won a fellowship to West Virginia University to study aerospace engineering. "I had $300 in my pocket," Chen recalled of his arrival in America.

After working at Hughes for many years building satellites and at a high-tech trading firm he cofounded, in 1990 Chen helped start his own company, Advanced Aerodynamic & Structures Inc. (AASI), in order to develop high-performance, inexpensive business aircraft. "I knew a little about airplanes but not much," Chen said. "It's different from all the things I did before."

Today, located in a state-of-the-art facility at Long Beach Airport where it's a neighbor of aircraft giant Boeing, AASI has received more than 170 orders for its six-person propjet, the $1.4 million Jetcruzer 500. A jet version of the 500, called the Stratocruzer 1250, is in the works and could help the company expand to one thousand employees and some $600 million in revenues. And Chen could even be building satellites again: "If there's synergy, then we'll do it. That will help us if we can do long-term contract work with the military and satellite business."

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