Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> September 10, 2004
J. NELSON HAPPY is the President and Vice Chairman, of Mooney Aerospace
Group, Inc. He started his aviation career by becoming a private pilot
over 30 years ago, and since then he has been a lawyer specializing in
aviation law and a top executive in several aviation related businesses.
Mr. Happy is a 1967 graduate of Columbia Law School, New York, New York
and has been a partner in two Kansas City, Missouri law firms, Dietrich,
Davis, Dicus, Rowlands and Schmitt, and founding partner of Happy,
Cooling and Herbers. He also served as counsel to Patterson, Belknap,
Webb & Tyler in New York, N.Y. As a lawyer, Mr. Happy represented some
of the nation's leading insurance companies and airplane manufacturers
and parts suppliers in complex products liability litigation, and became
well known as an authority on aviation law. He has represented clients
in federal and state trial and appellate courts through out the United
States. He is a member of the bars of Missouri, New York, District of
Columbia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kansas. He also served as general
counsel of Capital Air, Inc. of Smyrna, Tennessee, airline to have an
all jet fleet), which operated 12 DC-8 and 2 727-200 aircraft. He
ultimately became COO and Vice Chairman of the company, and was active
in expanding the airline's international presence in Central and Latin
America and Europe, as well as handling its government relations and FAA
certification responsibilities. As an executive, Mr. Happy served as CEO
and Chairman of Flight International Group, Newport News, Virginia,
which was at the time, the world's largest private air force, operating
over 100 Lear Jets, primarily in training missions for the U.S. Air
Force, U.S. Navy, NATO, and the Chinese Navy. He has served in other
executive leadership roles, including Chairman of First Chesapeake
Corporation, Hampton, Virginia, specializing in corporate finance, and
has been a law professor and a law school dean. He has been on the
faculty of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy at Northwestern
University, and has been an instructor in aviation law subjects in the
Judge Advocate General's School, U. S. Army Reserve, in Charlottesville,
Virginia, as a Major in the JAGC, U.S.A.R. He is also an ordained
Baptist Minister. Profile
Mr. Happy: Mooney Airplane Company is the manufacturer of high-
performance, four seat, single engine, piston powered, retractable gear
airplane, and
