Clay Lacy

Growing up in Wichita, Kansas—known as the air capital of the world—Clay Lacy began flying at age 12 and had 1,500 hours under his belt in January 1952 when he joined United Airlines as copilot on the DC-3 aircraft. During his career at United Airlines, he flew the Convair 340, DC-3, DC-4, DC-6, DC-7, DC-8, DC-10, Boeing 727 and Boeing 747-400. He retired seniority No. 1 in 1992 after more than 41 years of incident-free flying. In 1953, Clay joined the California Air National Guard at Van Nuys Airport, where he flew the F-86 fighter jet and became the officer in charge of instrument training. In 1962, Clay and fellow Air National Guard pilot Jack Conroy, founder of Aero Spacelines, made the first test flight of the Pregnant Guppy, a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser modified to carry the Saturn rocket booster in support of the nation’s space program to put man on the moon. Overall, he has made first flights in five new or heavily modified airplanes. In 1964, Clay flew the first Learjet into Van Nuys Airport as a demonstrator for Pacific Learjet, distributor in 11 western states, shaping a new era in corporate air transportation and mobility. Four years later he founded Clay Lacy Aviation as the first jet charter and executive jet management company on the West Coast, now recognized as the world’s most experienced operator of private jets. An acclaimed aerial cinematographer, Clay helped pioneer development of the Astrovision camera system he has utilized to film over 2,000 projects, including movies such as “Flight of the Intruders,” “The Great Santini,” “Armageddon” and “Top Gun,” and nearly every airline commercial featuring air-to-air photography ever produced.