The Aviation Excellence Awards

Flight International’s new Aviation Excellence Awards recognising achievement in the operational sector got off to a superb start last night before an invited audience at a prestigious ceremony in Singapore’s famous Raffles Hotel. Some 230 guests watched front line staff from all over the world collect their trophies.

The winners were drawn from cockpit-crew and cabin-crew serving with airlines, air forces, and corporate aviation. And Flight played host to a new award launched by Boeing – the Student Engineer of the Year Award.

The winners were selected by senior Flight International staff from nominations submitted by industry and individuals and are as follows:

Major Airline Flight Operations: Lufthansa

Lufthansa epitomises the concept of an airline as an operator of aircraft. While some carriers appear to regard the technical and operational side of their business as something to shield from their passengers, this one positively boasts about it. And it has much to be proud of. Despite operating well over 200 large airliners across the globe, both its on-time and safety records are among the best in the world. It has had a proactive policy of operating both Airbus and Boeing types and has often been in the forefront of introducing new aircraft – as it will be with the Airbus A380. Its engineering business is a world-leader, and, to a far greater extent than many of its peers, this airline plays a leading role in innovation and setting industry standards.

Airline Flight Operations: Chautauqua Airlines

Like many regional airlines the winner of the second category tonight is less well-known outside its native country than it is at home. But Chautauqua Airlines operates nearly 100 regional jets in partnership with all three of the biggest US majors, and it has cleverly capitalised on the ‘scope clauses’ at the larger carriers to grow its own flying operations in a difficult market. In 2005 its aircraft were flying an average of almost seven flights a day with a superb 99.4% despatch rate. By its skilled exploitation of modern regional jets and achievement of sound labour relations in a notoriously confrontational sector this carrier has remained profitable when rivals have struggled or even collapsed.

Boeing Young Engineer of the Year: James Gregory

Boeing has partnered with Flight International launch the Boeing Engineering Student of the Year Award, reflecting the shared desire of the industry to promote aerospace engineering as a career option. The judges of this category were three eminent retired Boeing engineers and all three expressed their admiration of the extremely high standard of entry. The winner is James Gregory, who completed his submitted work as a post-doctoral student at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The work covered two areas – the development of pressure-sensitive paint for use in unsteady aerodynamics; and the piezo-fluidic actuator for use in thrust-vectoring. Gregory is a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He has previously won awards from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a NASA research fellowship.

Armed Forces Flight Operations: 28 Sqn, UK Royal Air Force

The Middle East has proved to be a testing battleground for men and equipment like few others; challenging them immensely even before contact with the enemy. Brutal heat, all pervasive sand, and lengthy supply lines conspire against the military aircraft operator – particularly helicopter units like the UK Royal Air Force’s 28 Squadron. So it is no surprise that there were grave doubts in senior military circles about the wisdom of deploying a relatively new type – the AgustaWestland Merlin HC3 - to the region. But from the day they self-deployed their aircraft a remarkable 6,000km (3,250nm), the squadron comprehensively defied the doubters. Exceeding the expectations of commanders and even the aircraft’s makers, the unit quickly reached and sustained an 89% availability rate. It has operated without loss in a high-threat area and developed innovative tactics. For their deployment to Iraq, the winners of the Armed Forces category are…28 Squadron of the UK's Royal Air Force with their AgustaWestland Merlin helicopters.

Business Aviation Flight Operations: GV Executive

For operators of business jets, the reliable performance of their fleet of aircraft is at the very heart of what they do. With many of their customers under pressure to justify the value of executive transport, and all of them spending substantial amounts of money, the possibility of letting them down simply cannot be countenanced. And for those that operate at the top end of this already highly exclusive sector, the rules of the game are tougher still. GV Executive of Zurich is a master at making its aircraft sweat. Its first Gulfstream V logged a remarkable 5,000h flying in just its first four years in service, and today it is the world fleet leader with both the Gulfstream V and the G550. Gulfstream describes its monthly flight hours as “just incredible”. At the same time it has established an outstanding reputation for its service standards.

Cabin Crew: Air France 358

Anyone who needed a reminder of the primary reason that aircraft have flight attendants on board got one in the clearest possible way last year. When a widebody airliner overran the runway on landing and immediately caught fire, fatalities seemed virtually certain. The situation was made more perilous still when four of the eight emergency exits proved unusable. The exact sequence of events is still under investigation, but what is beyond doubt is that even though the cabin crew of Air France flight 358 at Toronto Pearson airport had no warning of what was about to happen, all 297 passengers and 12 crew escaped alive in less than two minutes.  Passengers have spoken of their own astonishment at the success of the evacuation and pictures of the burnt out aircraft show just how remarkable it was.

Safety: 169th Fighter Wing, US Air National Guard

Flying jet fighters is an inherently risky business. Even in peacetime, the pressures of high performance training almost inevitably lead to aircraft losses, or worse. Single-engined, single-pilot types are particularly at risk of technical malfunctions and the consequences of human error. A squadron flying exactly that breed of aircraft and furthermore one that has been repeatedly deployed in combat zones in inhospitable parts of the world, is not an obvious candidate to set a safety record. But the 169th Fighter Wing of the US Air National Guard, based at McEntire AFB, South Carolina has done just that. Despite multiple combat deployments, late last year it became the first American squadron to complete 100,000h flying in the Lockheed  Martin F-16 fighter without losing, or seriously damaging, any of its Pratt & Whitney F100-powered aircraft.

Publisher’s Award: Vern Raburn

Occasionally in aviation an individual comes along who simply sees the world in a different way and actually sets about changing it. This year’s recipient of the Publisher’s Award is someone who is leading a revolution in private and business aviation. A true entrepreneur, he has come up with one of the “biggest ideas” in this industry in many years…an easy-to-fly, so-called very light jet, within the price range of thousands of small businesses and individuals.

Vern Raburn is founder and chief executive of Eclipse Aviation which builds the Eclipse 500 that some call the “missing link” in the air transportation system, a light jet that – operated by air taxi firms and corporations – can shrink continents. Now, with more than 2,200 orders for the Eclipse 500 under his belt, he spent 25 years at a senior level in the IT industry before founding Eclipse Aviation in 1998, and is now just months off certificating a business jet that sells for just $1.5 million. A 6,500h pilot himself, he has been dismissed by some as an unrealistic idealist, but there is every prospect that the Eclipse 500 will make the cynics eat their words.

Printer Friendly