Donald Lang, engineer, business executive and pilot, who retired a year ago as president of Pratt & Whitney China, died on 31 December at the age of 54, following heart surgery. Lang joined P&W in 1965 as an experimental test engineer. He helped develop the F100 engine, which powers the US Air Force's McDonnell Douglas F-15s and Lockheed Martin F-16s, and went on to become the first programme manager of the PW4000 commercial engine. In 1991, Lang, leading P&W's strategic-planning operations, was made a Knight of the Grand Cross in the Order of the Grand Admiralty of Christopher Columbus in appreciation of establishing joint-venture company Aeronautical Maintenance Tooling in Spain. He was the first American to be given such a knighthood.
Source: Flight International
