Washington, DC – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today announced that aviation accident statistician and former NBAA Director Robert E. Breiling will receive the 2012 NBAA John P. “Jack” Doswell Award.
Breiling will receive his award during NBAA’s 65th Annual Meeting & Convention, to be held Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 in Orlando, FL, at the Orange County Convention Center and Orlando Executive Airport.
“NBAA is proud to recognize Bob Breiling’s outstanding contributions to the business aviation community,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “Through his devoted research and analysis of aviation accident data, as well as his work with NBAA, Bob has helped promote standards that have led to improvements in aviation safety and better training.”
Established in 1987, the Doswell Award is granted for lifelong individual achievement on behalf of and in support of the aims, goals and objectives of business aviation. It is named in honor of Jack Doswell, a remarkable man whose gifts inspired a high standard of involvement in the business aviation community.
Upon hearing that he would receive the award, Breiling said, “I am certainly proud to receive this prestigious NBAA award. I would like to think that my work over the years in analyzing business turbine-aircraft accidents has created awareness as to their causes and helped reduce accidents.”
Breiling’s data also was instrumental in obtaining an industry-wide FAA alternative that allows the use of advanced simulators for some pilot recurrency requirements (instead of in-aircraft experience), and helped support the development of FAR Part 91K, regulations governing fractional operators.
An airplane enthusiast from his early years, in 1951, Breiling joined the U.S. Navy, where he became a pilot and eventually flew a McDonnell Banshee F2H-3 and an F9F Panther, Grumman’s first jet fighter and one of the Navy’s first carrier-based jet fighters. He flew from the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier while stationed in the Pacific, and served 24 years in the Navy Reserve, ending his military service as the commander of a Lockheed P-2V squadron.
From 1973 to 1980, Breiling served on the NBAA Board of Directors alongside Doswell.
Today, through Robert E. Breiling Associates, Inc., he analyzes business aviation accident rates and provides reports for NBAA publications and the industry. He also is the provider of global data on business aircraft accidents for the International Business Aviation Council. Additionally, he produces annual reports on specific aircraft models, as well as the Helicopter Review, Single Turboprop Review, Turbine Accident Review and Fractional Review, all of which provide comparative accident data.