NBAA Silk Scarf Award Given to Harold Curtis

Contact: Dan Hubbard at (202) 783-9360 or dhubbard@nbaa.org

WASHINGTON, DC, March 26, 2007 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has awarded Harold Curtis the NBAA Silk Scarf Award, which is traditionally given to individuals in recognition of special contributions to the business aviation community. The award will be presented by Pat Dunn, chairman of NBAA’s International Operations Committee, this week during the NBAA 34th International Operators Conference in San Diego, CA.

In 1973, Curtis was the founding chairman of NBAA’s International Operators Committee and was known as a forward-thinking and early adapter of internationally capable aircraft while director of National Distiller’s flight department. Now retired, he started his career in South America, flying and maintaining a Grumman Goose used for passenger and cargo hauling for a mining venture.

At National Distillers, he captained the first Gulfstream I to fly the North Atlantic in the early 1960s. Later that decade, he crossed another threshold as captain of the first Gulfstream II to cross the North Atlantic. With such experiences, he became known as the “guru” for international travel information. Curtis’s logbook contains entries for oceanic flights in several Gulfstream and Lockheed Jetstar aircraft as well as holding a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) record for a circum-navigational flight in a Gulfstream.

Past colleagues still fondly remember trips around the world with Curtis, his wonderful sense of adventure and his dedication to business aviation, and view him as both a mentor and a friend.

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Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association, Inc. (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world’s largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.

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