About the pioneer of the HALO Agreement

Randy McDonnell is a third-generation member of Aviation's Great Family Dynasty, the McDonnell’s of McDonnell Douglas and Saint Louis Missouri. The Dynasty consists of 8 men and 1 woman over 4 generations and 99 years of continuous involvement in aviation.

Randy McDonnell has been inspired by what he learned from his family and the empire they built to develop the HALO Agreement. Read on to learn more about the McDonnell Family legacy left by James S. McDonnell, Sandy McDonnell, and Randy McDonnell.

The founder J.S. McDonnell was the most successful of the early aviation pioneers.

J.S. was affectionately known to millions as Mr. Mac. He was one of the strongest supporters of the League of Nations, United Nations and NATO. Mr. Mac's favorite saying was "We must wage peace from a foundation of strength" and he longed to move only into the production of airliners.

Mr. Mac, Randy's father Sandy, and other family members all worked to eliminate conflict and war. They wanted peace more than military sales even though McDonnell Douglas was the United States' largest defense contractor.

J.S. McDonnell, the peace maker in everything big and small

The Chairman of the Board of Washington University said this about Mr. Mac:

"I remember going to talk to Mr. Mac about how Barnes Hospital wanted to build a loading dock on our property, and we wanted some concessions in return. The advantage had swung in our direction because winter was coming and, once the ground froze, the loading dock would have to wait until spring. I reported our advantage to Mr. Mac, expecting him to use it, but he was ready to give it up. He said,

“You tell Edgar to go ahead and build his loading dock and you will continue the negotiations to reach a fair agreement. He will appreciate that.”

I wrote such a letter to Mr. Queeny. In the return mail, he gave the Medical School everything we had asked for. That marked the end of the bitter feud between Barnes and Washington University. Later, Edgar donated $1 million to the Medical School. Peace was restored thanks to Mr. Mac."

Mr. Mac didn't need the HALO rule because he already lived it in his daily life. Just one of the many reasons why he was the most successful of all early aviation pioneers.

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“The strength of a nation is proportional to the character of its citizens.”

This was a statement that Randy often heard from his father.

Sandy has been called the father of character education for founding CharacterPlus and being the Founding Chairman of Character.org and principle fund raiser of both organizations.

His passion for the last 32 years of his life was raising the ethical levels of himself, his family, McDonnell Douglas, and the world.

Sandy told his son Randy many times after 1980 how proud he was that he was being paid at the very BOTTOM of the pay scale for someone leading a corporation as large as McDonnell Douglas which in 1980 was the largest corporation still run by its founder J.S. McDonnell.

Sandy didn't need a large paycheck to know he was doing a great job for the family company. Wouldn't that be refreshing if every executive and sports star acted that way today. Sandy like Mr. Mac also lived the HALO rule and in fact Sandy instituted the core of it as the guiding principle for all teammates of McDonnell Douglas back in the 1980's.

Sandy McDonnell was also a leader in the 4-million-member character building Boy Scouts of America organization for many decades and national president from 1984 to 1986. He received almost every top award the Boy Scouts had to offer. He, and son Randy, were the first recipients of the Boy Scouts of America "Soaring Eagle" award which is now given out once annually. This was appropriate since Sandy had named the McDonnell Douglas F-15, the Eagle, and a live eagle flew around the large ballroom over the heads of the assembled guests.

Sandy had died of pancreatic cancer only a week before the ceremony. On Sandy McDonnell's last day when he was in pain from pancreatic cancer and knew he would soon go unconscious for the last time he was still making phone calls to promote good character. He knew, and had told his son many times, that "the strength of a nation is proportional to the character of its citizens".

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“Making decisions that maximized the benefit to everyone affected.”

Randy has been a pilot for 50 years and a helicopter pilot for 46 years. He was the 59th person to ever fly the McDonnell Douglas F-18 and only the fourth person to fly it over another country outside of the United States.

Randy graduated with high honors and third in his 1970 class from St. Louis Country Day High School. He is a graduate of the 1974 Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering class of Princeton University where he graduated with honors and 1976 MBA class at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri where he graduated Beta Gamma Sigma.

Randy's top positions at McDonnell Douglas were AV-8B Advanced Harrier Program Manager, Director of the Superteam (a teaming of Bell Helicopter and the McDonnell Douglas divisional companies of McDonnell Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas Helicopter) to pursue the LHX program which at the time was expected to be the largest U.S. Army procurement program ever and Corporate Director of Advanced Concepts for McDonnell Douglas. He left McDonnell Douglas in 1993 to form Advanced Aerospace Technologies Inc. and  Advanced Product Development LLC.

Randy is the inventor of the most advanced technology today in reusable rockets.

Randy is also the inventor of the most advanced aircraft technology. He invented this technology in 2002 but it is so advanced that it is still classified today. This is probably the longest period of time after its invention that any aircraft technology has been classified. It is a radically different looking aircraft and a radically different way of designing aircraft that DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) describes as having up to 10 TIMES, not 10% higher, but up to 10 TIMES the endurance of comparable aircraft. Endurance is the amount of time an aircraft can stay in the air unrefueled. After it is declassified and the technology is made public, you will likely someday be riding in an airliner version of it.

Randy is also the inventor of arguably some of the biggest technological advancements in cars, buses, delivery trucks, 18-wheelers, subways, trains, motorcycles, unhackable/un-spoofable alternatives to driver-less technology, package delivery systems and facilities, new forms of transportation including what are called "flying" buses/trucks, countering global warming, and providing fresh water to a thirsty world.

Randy is also the inventor of a solution to pandemics, the annual flu, the common cold and super-bugs that have become resistant to antibiotics. Once Randy's silver bullets are built, no one will have to miss any work or any socializing no matter what kind of respiratory pandemic hits in the future. No one will have to wash their hands either or disinfect surfaces and in the gestation period of the virus it will be dead.

Randy is also the inventor of the unique feature that forms the basis for all of Boeing's operationally successful unmanned aircraft that he is aware of.

Randy has many other inventions too numerous to mention here.

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