Jessica Reed is a writer and editor with AIN. She joined the team in the fall of 2023 after two years covering the aviation industry at Avionics International. She earned her bachelor&#039;s degree in English (Writing &amp; Rhetoric) from Pepperdine University. Her hometown is St. Louis, Missouri, and she since has resided in Santa Barbara, California, and Brooklyn, New York, among others. She is currently based in Philadelphia.

Writer & Editor

Jessica Reed

Frederick Smith—founder and former CEO of FedEx and a champion of business aviation throughout his career—passed away on June 21. Smith established FedEx in the early 1970s, initially operating with Dassault Falcon 20 business jets before building a pioneering dedicated cargo airline and eventually what became the world’s largest fleet of Cessna Caravan turboprop singles. The company joined NBAA as a member organization in 1983, maintaining that relationship throughout Smith’s tenure.
NBAA acknowledged his contributions to both commercial aviation and the business aviation sector. “Fred Smith changed the world with his creation of the cargo airline industry, but he always credited business aviation with helping make FedEx the company it is today,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen.
Smith received NBAA’s Al Ueltschi Humanitarian Award in 2012 for his work with Orbis, an international nonprofit operating a “flying eye hospital” that has restored sight to more than 23 million people.
The aviation pioneer served as a prominent advocate for NBAA’s “No Plane No Gain” campaign, emphasizing business aviation’s operational value. Smith’s statement supporting the initiative remains displayed at FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee: “Business aviation has been an integral part of FedEx’s success since the day we were founded. The military calls it a ‘force multiplier,’ and that’s what business aircraft have been for FedEx.”
A Vietnam War veteran who served two Marine Corps tours, Smith combined his military service background with entrepreneurial vision to create an enduring transportation network.
In a BusinessWeek article, Smith was asked about the founding of FedEx and the oft-cited claim that he received a C grade on the undergraduate college term paper in which he outlined his idea for a cargo airline. As a charter pilot at Tweed New Haven Airport in Connecticut, Smith met pilots who worked for the major tech companies at the time, including IBM and Xerox.
He explained, “That’s what their pilots used to talk about—what a difficult proposition it was to keep their field-service engineers and their parts and logistics systems operating. In fact, a lot of the corporate airplanes up there were doing nothing more than flying [computer] parts and pieces around...when the computer would break down.
“That was the paper, and the whole issue about the C on the grade came from naiveté on my part when I was talking to a reporter years and years ago, and he asked what I made. I said, “I don’t know, probably made my usual C."
Smith couldn’t remember exactly what grade he received on that paper and said, “I’ve tried to correct it many times, and usually when a journalist like you listens to the story and realizes how complex the story is, you realize it would take your whole profile to explain it.”

Former FedEx CEO and Business Aviation Advocate Fred Smith Flies West

“He always credited business aviation with helping make FedEx the company it is today”

Frederick Smith, founder and former chief executive of FedEx Corporation who championed business aviation throughout his career, passed away on June 21, 2025.

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