LINDEN BLUE

Linden Stanley Blue (born 1936) is an American aviation executive. He is the co-owner of General Atomics, where he serves as the Vice Chairman, and runs aircraft manufacturer Spectrum Aeronautical.

Blue was born in Meeker, Colorado. He earned his BA from Yale University in 1958 and graduated from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

He earned his private pilot's license on 17 December 1955. An engine failure while flying a single-engine Stinson Voyager over the jungles of Honduras in 1958 made Blue a believer in twin-engine aircraft. Both the Spectrum S-40 Freedom and Spectrum S-33 Independence are designed to be twin-engine aircraft.
In 1961, during a flight from Nicaragua, he was forced to land in Havana, Cuba and was jailed for 12 days, just prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion.

He and his brother James Neal Blue acquired General Atomics in 1986 from Chevron for a reported $60 million. Linden P. Blue, the son of James Neal Blue, is President of the Reconnaissance System Group (RSG) of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI).

Blue's contributions to the aeronautical, energy, and military sciences were recognized by the Industrial Research Institute in 2010 when he was presented the IRI Achievement Award.
In November 2012 it was announced that he plans to marry Ronne Froman, a retired Navy admiral and former Chief Operating Officer for the city of San Diego.