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Last week's only other major appointment was that of Najeeb Halaby to take over from Elwood ("Pete") Quesada as head of the Federal Aviation Agency. A lawyer and longtime pilot (he flew for the Army Air Forces, then for Lockheed, and joined the Navy as a test pilot), Halaby, 45, is a native Texan of mixed ancestry: his father was Syrian, his mother of Irish-English extraction. He is familiar with the growing problems of air traffic control that plague his agency. He was vice chairman of the President's 1955-57 Aviation-Facilities Study Group, which warned that fast-moving jets would soon saturate U.S. airways. Experienced both in Government service (Defense Department, ECA, NATO) and private industry (Servomechanisms, Inc.), "Jeeb" Halaby made it clear that he intends to exercise the same firm control over FAA that characterized Quesada's service. In all efforts to minimize the perils of U.S. airspace, said Halaby, he would deal directly with President Jack Kennedy. "I'm his man."
