NBAA Donates $1 Million to Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Contact: Cassandra Bosco

Washington, DC, October 12, 2000 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) tonight presented $1 million to Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) Director General John R. Dailey and Mary Engen, widow of the museum’s former director, Admiral Donald D. Engen, during the Association’s Annual Awards Banquet. Raised through NBAA’s Operation Heritage Program, the contribution will be used to help build the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport in Virginia, which will house a permanent business aviation exhibit.

In making the presentation, NBAA fulfilled a pledge made in honor of the late Donald Engen by the Association’s Board of Directors during the NBAA Awards Banquet in Atlanta on October 14, 1999.

Through the Operation Heritage fundraising program, NBAA over the past year has collected generous corporate and individual donations from members of the business aviation community. This new 250,000-square-foot NASM facility, which is designed to house up to 300 aircraft and spacecraft, is scheduled to open in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of manned, powered flight in 2003. As of August 2000, NASM had raised $103 million of the $130 million in funds required to build the Center. To review details about the new Center’s design and construction, visit the Center Web site at www.nasm.edu/nasm/ext/dulles.htm.

The NBAA Awards Banquet is held each year at the close of the Association’s Annual Meeting & Convention, this year held on October 10 to 12 in New Orleans.

NBAA represents the aviation interests of over 6,200 companies which own or operate general aviation aircraft as an aid to the conduct of their business, or are involved with business aviation. NBAA Member Companies earn annual revenues approaching $5 trillion — a number that is about half the gross domestic product — and employ more than 19 million people worldwide. The NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention is the world’s largest display of civil aviation products and services.