Najeeb Elias "Jeeb" Halaby Jr. (Arabic: نجيب إلياس حلبي; November 19, 1915 – July 2, 2003) was an American businessman, government official, aviator, and the father of Queen Noor of Jordan.[1] His father was Najeeb Elias Halaby (March 17, 1878/1880 – December 16, 1928), a Syrian Christian[2][3][4] who was born in Damascus and whose parents hailed from Aleppo, arriving in the United States in 1891.An alumnus of Stanford University (1937) and Yale Law School (1940), he served as a U.S. Navy test pilot during World War II.Halaby was a proponent for the creation of the United States Department of Transportation, which occurred in April 1967 during his time in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.President Johnson signed Executive Order 11149 approving $1 billion to build a US made SST, but eventually the project was cancelled in 1971 because of its cost.