This an edited transcript of an oral history interview of James Ragsdale conducted by Volker Janssen. James Ragsdale was a public relations executive at American Airlines from 1960 to 1969 and at Lockheed from 1970 to 1996. Topics covered in the interview include: von Braun and German engineers in US; transition to jet aircraft in commercial airlines and growth of airline industry; demographics of commercial air travelers and workforce in 1960s; effect of commercial air travel on railroads; public relations on classified projects; environmental issues and public relations; decline of aircraft manufacturing in Southern California; the need for more airports in California; and public and political obstacles. James Ragsdale was born in Chicago in 1933 and moved as a young child to Palestine, Texas and then in 1939 to Dallas, where he graduated high school in 1950. He majored in journalism at North Texas State College and served in the Air Force ROTC. Upon graduating in 1954 he joined the Air Force as a bomber pilot and served three years. In 1957 he joined the Dallas Times Herald as a reporter covering military and aviation news. In 1960 he went to work in public relations for American Airlines, first in Dallas and then New York. In 1969 he moved to Los Angeles and got a job at Lockheed promoting the L-1011 airliner, and then became communications director for the Lockheed California company, including public relations for the Lockheed Skunk Works, through his retirement in 1996. [Object file name], Aerospace Oral History Project, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
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