Ken Higgins 1942-2013

 

 

Ken Higgins rose through the ranks since joining the Boeing company in 1966 as a flight test engineer, Higgins retired  as vice president of flight operations and validation for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a role he had for a full decade.

 He was on the flight deck for the first flights of the 737-400, -500 and 747-400, and made the first flight of the 737-700 with Mike Hewitt and 777-200 with John Cashman. He was responsible for the test organisations with BCA from 1996, including a workforce of around 150 pilots and some 1,500 engineers and technicians. Since 1987 Higgins also served as director of flight testing, and had overseen all major new certification efforts from the 747-400 onwards.