Nader Jahanbani

Sepahbod Nader Jahanbani (; 16 April 1928–13 March 1979) was an Iranian general, distinguished fighter pilot of Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) and the deputy chief of the IIAF under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Despite being executed in 1979 by Islamic Revolutionaries, he is widely lauded as the "father of the Iranian Air Force" along with General Mohammad Khatami and General Amir Hossein Rabii , for modernizing the air force to become a potent and powerful force whose advanced equipment and training they acquired for Iran, such as the F-14 Tomcat, would save Iran's crucial infrastructure during the Iran–Iraq War. He was the leader of the Golden Crown, the first and national aerobatics display Iranian team. He is nicknamed the "blue eyed general of Iran". By many accounts, he is considered one of the best and most capable pilots of his time. Early life and education Jahanbani was born on 16 April 1928 into a family with a long military history. His father, Amanullah Jahanbani, was a lieutenant general, who served in the Persian Cossack Brigade with Reza Shah Pahlavi. He was a Qajar prince, great-grandson of Fath Ali Shah. Nader's mother, Helen Kasminsky, was from the Russian aristocracy in Petrograd. He had one sister, Mehremonir and two brothers, Parviz, who was an officer in the Imperial Iranian Marines, and Khosrow, who married Shahnaz Pahlavi. Amanullah was imprisoned when Nader Jahanbani was 12, but after Reza Shah died, he was released and made a senator by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. By then, his father sent him to the Russian Air Force Academy, from which he graduated as a foreign cadet, and entered the IIAF in 1950 with the rank of first lieutenant. In 1951, Jahanbani was selected to be sent to Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base in Germany to attend the jet pilot training school to become a pilot for the first Iranian jet fighter aircraft, the F-84 Thunderjet, which was scheduled for delivery in 1955, along with 15 other pilots. Upon completion of the training, 10 pilots returned to Iran while Jahanbani, along with four others, continued their training to become instructors upon return to Iran.