Wichita ? The former leader of Cessna Aircraft, who is credited with leading efforts to ease liability against the general aviation industry in the 1990s, is being inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Russ Meyer, a former chief executive at Cessna Aircraft, led Cessna during the production of thousands of aircraft. The 76-year-old helped persuade Congress to pass the General Aviation Revitalization Act in 1994 and he brought thousands of jobs to Kansas.

Meyer was inducted Saturday in Dayton, Ohio.

Meyer, who is from Davenport, Iowa, was also a fighter pilot in the Air Force and Marines.

Former Kansas congressman Dan Glickman said Meyer’s work over many years persuaded Congress to approve the Revitalization Act.

The act limited aircraft manufacturers’ product liability and prompted Cessna and other companies to resume making airplanes they had stopped producing.

Meyer persuaded Democrats and President Bill Clinton to support the act, despite some supporters being against it, including the American Trial Lawyers Association.

“He was the key guy with us who got that bill passed,” said Glickman, who now heads the Motion Picture Association of America.

After an energy crisis in the 1970s that threatened general aviation, Meyer immediately struck up relationships with Bob Dole and other members of Congress that headed that crisis off, said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association.

During Meyer’s 31 years as chairman, Cessna made 67,000 aircraft.

“Every astronaut who came along since 1974, every airline pilot, every general aviation pilot, every fighter pilot, ‘What’s the first plane they flew when they began flying?'” Glickman said. “Probably a Cessna, and probably a plane he helped develop.”

Meyer said he doesn’t have a lot to say about the accolades coming his way.

“I guess if there’s a common thread to what we’ve done, inside and outside Cessna, it’s that we figured out how to work together,” he said.