Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

&nbsp;J. Kenneth Forester, 94, founder of Teterboro, N.J.-based Meridian, died June 1. Known as “Ken Sr.” to distinguish him from his son, who later joined the family business, Forester had a more-than-50-year career as a pilot, maintenance technician and executive in aviation services.

 


Forester’s aviation career began in December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and earned a private pilot’s license a year later. He became an engineering test pilot in 1943 and flew fighters, bombers and transports over the next three years.

 


After the war, he founded Mallard Air Service, serving as a charter, maintenance base and distributor for the Republic Seabee and North American Navion. Forester later managed a wire machinery plant in Paterson, N.J. and sold Navions at Teterboro Airport before founding Meridian’s predecessor company, initially known as General Aviation Company, in 1958 on the west side of Teterboro Airport.

 


His son Ken took over the management of the company in 1974, and in 1986 it became a Million Air franchise. The company was rebranded as Meridian in 2006, when it returned to an independently owned and operated entity.

 


Forester was inducted into the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame in 2008 and also was awarded with the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic award in 2002.

Meridian Founder Forester Flies West

Forester was inducted into the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame in 2008.

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