NBAA-BACE Opening Keynote Offers Lessons from Giants, Inspiration from the Universe

Oct.22, 2024

The 2024 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) Opening Keynote focused on building on the lessons of giants in our industry to define the roadmap toward the unlimited potential of an incredibly exciting and uplifting future ahead.

NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen noted this year’s show marks the one-year anniversary of launching the CLIMBING. FAST. initiative, which showcases the industry’s societal benefits, including a pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“We create jobs,” he said. “We’re the access point to the world’s global market. We help companies be efficient and productive and we do relief efforts. But we’re also an industry that continues to focus on efficiency and sustainability.”

FAA’s Whitaker: Technology Offers a Path for Leading in Safety

Business aviation is also at the forefront of innovative technologies, as seen in the introduction of the Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) establishing the regulatory framework for an entirely new aircraft category, advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles.

“You can’t certify a new aircraft and not have a way of operating it as intended,” FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker told Bolen. “A lot of credit [for the SFAR] goes to our head of safety, David Bolter, who had the vision 16 months ago on how to integrate this technology.

“I don’t know the last time we went from an idea to a final rule in 16 months,” he added. “For those not familiar [with FAA rulemaking] that is light speed.”

Whitaker also discussed his first year leading the U.S. aviation authority that included questions about the efficacy of the FAA’s regulatory and oversight role. He acknowledged the agency has work to do.

“We’re taking a fresh look at our oversight model to see where we are too restrictive, and see where we’re not putting enough resources,” Whitaker said. “We have an outdated paradigm for oversight. It needs to be more dynamic.”

That also includes reaffirming the FAA’s leading role in driving international aviation regulations. “I’ve systematically engaged with some of my counterparts abroad,” he continued. “They want to see us step up and show leadership. We must lead in safety and make sure we’re really promoting that remote safety globally.

“Advanced air mobility is an opportunity to show how to safely integrate new technology,” Whitaker said. “We’re getting out in front of this.”

Meritorious Service to Aviation Award Recipients Laurent and Pierre Beaudoin

Next was the presentation of NBAA’s Meritorious Service to Aviation Award to Laurent and Pierre Beaudoin, who have driven innovation, safety and sustainability at business aircraft manufacturer Bombardier for more than 60 years.

In a candid discussion journalist Lisa Stark, the father/son team reflected on their experiences at the planemaker, including times they faced down market conditions and challenges that seemed nearly impossible to overcome.

“Nothing is impossible,” Laurent said. “There are ways to achieve it, but you have to find the right way to do it. These days, if there’s no risk in business, there’s no business.”

“Laurent created a place where we’re allowed to dream, to set bold goals and get the support to go after a unique success,” Pierre added. “That environment created the company that we have today. I see the enthusiasm throughout our team that comes, I think, from knowing they can push the envelope.”

That includes Bombardier’s annual Safety Standdown, which is open to anyone in the industry, as well as the company’s efforts toward achieving net-zero industry carbon emissions by 2050 – a goal Stark called “radical.”

Pierre pointed to Bombardier’s blended wing EcoJet concept and its advocacy for sustainable aviation fuel. “Flying is a serious thing,” he noted. “Our industry takes the time to do things properly. We need to understand what goes on. We need to really have the real conversation, because there’re a lot of things that are being said about sustainability that are not always fact-based.”

Laurent also reflected on the benefits – and occasional friction – that are part of a family-run business. “[Pierre and I] try not to talk too much about business when we’re outside the business,” he said. “In business we’re very concentrated. I like that my son started at the company very early on, and he’s been through almost the same career [path] as mine.”

“It Was a Firmware Upgrade”

Rounding out the session was a lively discussion between Bonnie Simi, a pilot and three-time Olympic competitor who now works for AAM manufacturer Joby Aviation, and acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Marking his second appearance at business aviation’s most powerful event, Tyson recalled his parents’ work introducing him and his siblings to new experiences at a young age.

“We were dragged around the city every weekend, not realizing there was a great master plan to expose us to very interesting things adults do that are not necessarily [being a] doctor or lawyer,” he said. “We went to the art museum, the natural history museum, the aquarium.”

At age 9, Tyson found his calling in the star-filled sky at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. “I thought it was a hoax,” he said. “I had seen the night sky from the Bronx, and it was like four stars.”

Two years later, he declared his plan to become an astrophysicist, “which usually shut up the adults. The conversation just stopped. But what it meant was I could align my life’s priorities, books that I read, places I visited, to feed that passion.”

In another example of inspiration driving the future, Tyson pointed to the famed “Earthrise” photo taken by Apollo 8 lunar mission astronaut Bill Anders. The iconic photo offered humanity an entirely new perspective on our home planet and, he noted, launched an entirely new collective thinking.

“In 1968 the Whole Earth Catalog is published,” Tyson said. “No one had used that phrase before, ‘whole Earth.’ In 1970, in the middle of the hot war in Southeast Asia and the Cold War with Russia, the Environmental Protection Agency is founded. Earth Day comes after that. We banned leaded gas and DDT. We passed a comprehensive Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

“[Earthrise] was a firmware upgrade,” he continued, “that came into our brains upon sight of Earth, isolated in the darkness of space, floating with no hint that help would ever come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”