Air Lease Corporation
Air Lease Corporation is an aircraft leasing company founded by Steven Udvar-Hazy in the early jet age after he initially tried running a small airline in California. The company grew to make Udvar-Hazy a billionaire and became a major player in the aviation industry. His success enabled him to finance the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a major extension to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.
Steven Udvar-Hazy recognized that the big money was in aircraft leasing rather than operating airlines directly, so he started his own leasing company at the dawn of the jet age.
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