Born: 02/17/1934
Inducted: 10/10/1998

George Cudahy was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Admitted to the United States Naval Academy, he graduated in 1957 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. After flight school, Cudahy was stationed in Europe and North Africa flying the North American F-86 ‘Sabre’ and Convair’s F-102 ‘Delta Dagger’ aircraft.

Cudahy returned to the United States and earned his master’s degree in astronautical engineering in 1965. Cudahy was then assigned to Fighter Flight Test at the Air Force Missile Development Center. He flew the Convair F-106 ‘Delta Dart’, the North American F-l00 ‘Super Sabre’ and Lockheed T-33 ‘Shooting Star’ aircraft in various programs.

In 1968, after checkout in the McDonnell Douglas F-4 ‘Phantom II’, he was stationed in Thailand. Cudahy would fly 186 combat missions over Laos and 20 over North Vietnam during his tour in South East Asia. He was named distinguished graduate upon graduation of the USAF’s Air War College.

In 1971 George became a Research Associate at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories in New Mexico, and in 1972 returned to school where he earned his Doctorate Degree in Aerospace Science in 1976. It was during 1977 that Cudahy was appointed the Director and Commander of the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory, one of the then three world's largest aeronautical research and development facilities.

Colonel George F. Cudahy retired from the Air Force in 1980 with the Bronze Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, 12 Air Metals, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal and numerous other recognitions.

After leaving the Air Force he joined Fairchild-Republic as Vice-President of Engineering. Later, Cudahy served as Senior Vice-President and General Manager of the company’s Weapon System Division. In this position he was responsible for Engineering, Research and Development, Flight Test and Production of the A-10 ‘Thunderbolt II’. Other projects he supervised included: development of the Space Shuttle vertical tail, the Boeing 747 movable wing surfaces, several projects for the Lockheed C-5 ‘Galaxy’ and the T-46 Flight Demonstrator aircraft.

In 1984 Cudahy was named president of SAAB-Fairchild Aircraft. The SAAB Fairchild SF-340 regional commuter aircraft would earn its FAA and European certification that year.

George Cudahy is, today, President and CEO of American Eagle Brick Company of El Paso, Texas, a company he founded in 1990. He continues his engineering efforts – he was a design team member of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) ‘Outrider’ and is chief design engineer for Longhorn Manufacturing of Ben Wheeler, TX.