Ethiopian has a long history of American backing/aid from it's inception.
This info from Wiki:
The carrier was eventually founded as Ethiopian Air Lines on 21 December 1945, with aid from both Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express, which later merged into TWA.The airline relied upon American pilots, technicians, administrators and accountants; it even had TWA General Managers On its 25th anniversary in 1971, the company was ready to continue without foreign assistance. Since then, Ethiopian Airlines has been managed and staffed by Ethiopian personnel. The first Ethiopian General Manager was Semret Medhane, who served in this position for the period 1971-1975.