FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL held its now traditional awards evening during the Paris Air Show at a rather splendid venue, The Pavillon D”Armenonville on the Bois de Boulogne. We don”t have space here to list all ten categories (and many are of a specialist type ” please go to the Flight web site) but the prestigious Publisher”s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Aerospace went to someone who deserved it beyond argument, Russell Meyer, chairman emeritus, Cessna Aircraft. During his 30 years at the company Meyer has guided Cessna from its heritage business of light aircraft to the top of the tree as far as business aircraft is concerned. With his efforts to put the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994 onto the US law books he literally saved the industry. Amongst the other accolades last week one went to Embraer, not for its commercial jets but for its Ipanema piston-single agricultural utility aircraft powered by ethanol extracted from sugar cane. It could be the way of the future.
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