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Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III (January 23, 1951– ) is

Early life
Chesley Sullenberger was born on January 23, 1951, to a dentist father and an elementary school teacher mother. He has one sibling, Mary Margaret Wilson. Sullenberger grew up in Denison, Texas, on a street named after his mother's pioneer family, the Hannas, and Mary has said that her brother used to build model airplanes, and model aircraft carriers. He was a schoolboy in Denison, and he was consistently evaluated as being in the 99th percentile in every academic category; his IQ was deemed high enough to join Mensa International when he was 12 years old. Mary contended that Sullenberger might have become interested in flying after hearing stories about his father's service in the United States Navy, and Sullenberger's high school friends reported that he gained his passion from watching jets from Perrin Air Force Base. Both parents reportedly encouraged his flying aspirations. He undertook private flying lessons, and when he was 14, Sullenberger got a pilot's license, and made headlines in the local paper for flying a crop duster at 15. A classmate said that Sullenberger wanted in his youth to enroll into the United States Air Force Academy, and that he tried to keep out of trouble in order to achieve this. He graduated from Denison High School in 1969, near the top of his class of around 350, after having been an honor student, the president of the Latin club, and the first-chair flutist in the marching band. He was also the president of the Band Council, a member of the Science Club, and he won an academic award in English.

Military service
In 1969, Sullenberger passed the rigorous entry requirements for the Air Force Academy. During his first year at the academy, he was chosen to be one of around thirteen freshmen enrolled into a cadet glider program, and by the end of the year he was an instructor pilot. Whilst a member of the academy, he gained a number of academic awards, and in 1973, his graduating year, he was given the Outstanding Cadet in Airmanship Award, awarded to the top flier in each graduating class. He majored in psychology and basic sciences. He became a fighter pilot for the United States Air Force. , and served in the force from 1973 to 1980. He flew McDonnell (later McDonnell Douglas) F-4 Phantom II's, and became a flight leader operating in Europe and the Pacific, whilst also commanding war-game exercises in Nevada. He was eventually promoted to the rank of captain, and served on the official aircraft accident investigation board.

Commercial pilot
He became a pilot for PSA Airlines in 1980, and was based in San Diego. When PSA Airlines changed into US Airways in 1988, he began working for the successor airline. Since joining PSA Airlines, Sullenberger has gained at least 19,000 hours worth of flight experience to North America, Europe, and South America, whilst piloting Airbus A320s and other similar aircraft. Sullenberger has served as Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member safety chairman. In 2007, he founded a security consultancy called Safety Reliability Methods, and is now its president and chief executive.