A Jet Powered Life

The poor boy raised on a bankrupt farm along the western shore of the Mississippi would become the owner of the Fortune 500 aerospace empire, Gulfstream Aerospace. It was a convoluted journey for this visionary tycoon of modern aviation, and the contradictions were many: Allen E. Paulson was ambitious and reticent, generous and frugal, confident and dogged by self-doubt. His lifelong interest in flying began as an airplane mechanic, later a record-setting pilot and an innovator in the development of business jets. His friends included U.S. presidents, Hollywood celebrities and famous aviators. He lost one son to a flying accident and almost lost another to a kidnapping, until he son shot the would-be kidnapper dead. Paulson toasted and tangled with the likes of business titans Lee Iacocca and Teddy Fortsmann—until he was forced out of his company and life took another direction. Paulson played by the rules and took each success and setback in stride, always with a keen ethical sense and an eternal entrepreneurial spirit.