March 1, 2000

Assad Kotaite, President
International Civil Aviation Organization
999 University
Montreal, Quebec H3C 5H7
CANADA

Dear Mr. Kotaite,

I am a member of the OX-5 Club, and it was troubling to read in the December issue of The OX-5 News (copy enclosed) that Jerome Lederer had been honored by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization for contributions to aviation safety. Obviously, the Council was not aware of Mr. Lederer's despicable role in preventing the safest aircraft design ever invented from being widely implemented in a timely fashion. Thusly, many thousands of military and civil passengers have been needlessly killed in aircraft which have been fundamentally unsafe.

When Mr. Lederer was President of the Flight Safety Foundation, I had an appointment with him to discuss aircraft safety. When I pointed out to him the great safety advantages of the Burnelli Lifting Body aircraft design principle, his face froze, and he brusquely ended the meeting. He must be feeling extremely foolish today with the advent of the Boeing/NASA BWB, as it completely embraces Mr. Burnelli's 1940s technology (see enclosed photos). Mr. Lederer has held high and responsible positions in government aviation agencies, as well as in the Guggenheim aviation safety organizations, but, in every instance, he has failed to recognize and comment upon the unparalleled safety features, inherent in the Burnelli lifting body configuration. Does this behavior entitle Mr. Lederer to be honored, when his negligence has played a major role in the unnecessary air crash fatalities, which have taken place during his career, and which continue unabated?

I enclose a video, Burnelli: The Greatest Story in Aviation History", so that you and your colleagues can see the actual 1935 crash of a Burnelli airplane and the extraordinary results. How could any organization, government or civil, and particularly the Guggenheim aviation safety executives have missed the glaring message on crashworthiness, widely broadcast by this accident in the national press and on newsreel film?

I am also enclosing a copy of an article I wrote for the IAPA First Class magazine in June 1997 and copies of the relevant correspondence. You will see in the letter to me of June 26,1998, from IAPA's Chairman that this [Burnelli] matter came up when IAPA's Dr. Hans Krakauer attended a then recent ICAO meeting in Montreal. We would very much like to know the extent of the discussion and, of course, its conclusions, if you would share this information with us.

In closing, we would be grateful to be advised why ICAO has not taken an active interest in the superior safety and economic features, offered by the Burnelli Lifting Body configuration.

Thanking you, we look forward to your response.

Respectfully,

Chalmers H. Goodlin

Chairman & CEO

Enclosures