The 2024 winners are judged and selected based on their accomplishments this past year. The 2024 event will recognize the work that was completed in 2023.
“Since 1957, Aviation Week’s editors have annually honored our industry’s great achievements and its innovators,” saya Joe Anselmo, editorial director and editor-in-chief of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. “This year’s Laureate Winners were selected by our editors after a rigorous screening of dozens of internal and external nominations. They exemplify the industry’s relentless push to expand the boundaries of what is possible.”
Aviation Week Network is the largest multimedia information and services provider for the global aviation, aerospace, and defense industries. Aviation Week Network’s 66th Laureate Awards recognise extraordinary achievements in aerospace by innovators that represent the values and vision of the global aerospace community across industry sectors including commercial, defence, space and maintenance, repair, and overhaul.
2024 Winners
Commercial Aviation
BEA (Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile)
French air accident investigation office BEA has identified trends confirming aircraft in the approach and landing phase remain vulnerable despite equipment sophistication. The bureau is improving its investigation methods with new sources of data, such as smartphones. BEA is also investing in the 3D analysis of large mechanical parts, a lesson learned from uncontained engine failures.
Rolls-Royce UltraFan
Rolls-Royce conducted the first run of its UltraFan geared turbofan demonstrator in April 2023 in the Testbed 80 facility in Derby, England. With a fan diameter of 140 in., the UltraFan is by physical size the largest jet engine ever run. The test also marked the first run of a new-centerline large-fan engine at Rolls since the Trent XWB-84 in 2010.
Universal Hydrogen
Universal Hydrogen’s De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 propulsion testbed became the largest hydrogen-electric-powered aircraft yet to fly in March 2023, taking off with one of its two turboprop engines replaced with a 1 megawatt-class fuel-cell powertrain in a key milestone for the startup’s efforts to introduce zero-emission hydrogen propulsion beginning with regional aviation.
American Airlines HEAT
American Airlines’ Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool (HEAT) is targeted at improving operational performance during severe weather or other events affecting flights. The tool uses data from various sources, weighs them and shifts departures and arrivals at hubs to minimize disruptions. The tool has prevented around 1,000 cancellations since it was introduced in 2022.
Güliz Öztürk, Pegasus Airlines, for leadership
Güliz Öztürk has led the remarkable comeback of Pegasus Airlines as CEO since 2022. Pegasus is one of the most profitable airlines globally, following a highly successful low-cost carrier model mainly from its biggest base at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen airport. Öztürk has not only delivered strong financial results but is also a keen supporter of gender equality and diversity.
Business Aviation
Dassault Aviation FalconWays
A small team of Dassault engineers and pilots, led by engineering manager Cyrille Grimald, developed a flight planning tool called FalconWays that allows pilots to optimize fuel consumption by selecting the most fuel-efficient route based on real-time weather data and performance data for each specific model of Falcon business jet. The team proposed the program through an in-house entrepreneurial initiative.
NBAA Sustainable Flight Department Accreditation
The association launched the Sustainable Flight Department Accreditation Program to support organizations in reducing their carbon footprint. The program has four accreditations–flight, ground support, operations, infrastructure. To date, it has awarded 44 accreditations to 25 businesses that have identified a net reduction of 125,266 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions. Beyond this, it nurtures a sustainable culture and has become the industry standard.
SmartSky Networks
SmartSky’s 5G/LTE air-to-ground connectivity network for business aviation became operational across the U.S. in 2022. In 2023, the company announced SmartSky LITE, the first streaming-level system available for smaller business aircraft such as the Pilatus PC-12. The 5G/LTE LITE system is flying on five different types of light jet and turboprop.
GAMA Electric Propulsion and Innovation Committee (EPIC)
Established in 2015 by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), EPIC has successfully brought industry together to provide coordinated input to aviation regulators and standards developers on issues raised by new technologies including electric aircraft propulsion and simplified vehicle operation. In August 2023, GAMA submitted a robust industry-wide response to the FAA’s proposed operating rules for the vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles.
Barrington Irving for leadership
Having previously been the youngest person to pilot an airplane around the world solo, Jamaican-American pilot Barrington Irving created the Flying Classroom to bring STEM learning to K-12 students. Now that classroom, part of the Barrington Irving Technical Training School, will also serve adults. The aviation technical training delivers job-ready skills that can help expand the workforce to a wider range of people.
MRO
AAR
AAR internally developed the Concourse digital platform to unify and streamline business operations across the company. Concourse provides a single place for employees and customers to interact and manage business, as well as centralizes future technology initiatives at AAR. In early 2023, it launched the Digital MRO application that digitizes the entire airframe MRO workflow, from task cards to inspections and final signoffs.
Delta TechOps
The Delta Engine Maintenance team reimagined engine operations coming out of COVID-19 when the airline MRO faced significant increases in engine and part repair turnaround times and the addition of three engine variants. The result: the APEX program’s predictive and simulation capabilities have resulted in predictive part-level material scrapping, optimized engine production control, substantial improvements in material availability and eight-digit cost savings.
GE Aerospace
GE Aerospace’s investments in new engine inspection technology is improving the efficiency, accuracy and quality of inspections. For example, its artificial intelligence-powered Advanced Blade Inspection Tool for on-wing inspections can reduce inspection time from hours to minutes and its Sensiworm uses untethered soft robotics technology to crawl through an engine to detect defects and corrosion.
Lufthansa Technik
To streamline workflows and enable data sharing across applications, Lufthansa Technik has created a technical operations ecosystem by bringing together flydocs maintenance archives and Aviatar data platform with Swiss-AS’s AMOS engineering and maintenance system. Benefits range from making application programming interfaces work seamlessly across systems to leveraging data across systems and creating additional predictive benefits.
SR Technics, Atlas Air and Kuehne+Nagel
In April 2023, the MRO, air cargo operator and logistics giant joined forces to create the Sustainable Engine Alliance, a partnership to manage global engine supply chains more sustainably. This includes the use of digital services for emissions transparency, avoidance of environmentally harmful materials, use of sustainable aviation fuels and engine stand management solutions.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Clay Lacy
Clay Lacy, often called Mr. Learjet, was instrumental in launching the business jet era. Clay began flying at age 12 on his grandmother’s farm and joined United Airlines in 1952 at age 19. In 1969, he flew the first Learjet into Van Nuys Airport as a demonstrator for Pacific Learjet. Four years later, he founded Clay Lacy Aviation as the first jet charter and executive jet management company on the West Coast. He has flown more than 300 aircraft types and logged more than 50,000 flight hours. He also helped pioneer the Astrovision camera system used to film more than 2,000 projects including the original Top Gun.
Daniel S. Goldin
Dan Goldin is known as the longest-serving administrator of NASA, but his contributions to space go far beyond that. Launching his career in 1962 as a propulsion engineer at NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, Goldin went on to a 25-year career leading cutting-edge national security space projects at TRW (now Northrop Grumman). Appointed NASA administrator in 1992, Goldin re-energized the agency with his “faster, better, cheaper” mantra, oversaw the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope, landing of U.S. rovers on Mars, the redesign and construction of the International Space Station and forged an international partnership with Russia in the ashes of the Cold War. He also guided the initial design of the James Webb Space Telescope, rejecting early concepts as woefully insufficient.
Pathfinder Award
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
