Winners Of The Meritorious Service And 'Jack' Doswell
Awards
The NBAA announced Monday that the legendary pilot and
entrepreneur Clay Lacy will receive the 2011 NBAA Meritorious
Service to Aviation Award, and international business aviation
pioneer Don Spruston will receive the 2011 NBAA John P.
“Jack” Doswell Award.
The Meritorious Service to Aviation Award is NBAA’s most
distinguished honor, presented annually to an individual who, by
virtue of a lifetime of personal dedication, has made significant,
identifiable contributions that have materially advanced aviation
interests. The Doswell Award is granted for lifelong individual
achievement on behalf of and in support of the aims, goals and
objectives of business aviation. "NBAA is proud to recognize these
two outstanding leaders in the business aviation community for
their lifelong service and invaluable contributions to the
industry," said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen.
Meritorious Service to Aviation Award Recipient Clay Lacy
(pictured) is a world-renowned pilot with over 50,000 hours of
flying time whose lifetime in aviation has included experience as
an Air Force pilot and airline pilot, fame as a national air racer,
and international success as a director and videographer
specializing in air-to-air sequences for Hollywood blockbuster
movies and television commercials.
In October 1964, Lacy based the first business jet at Van Nuys
Airport (VNY), and from 1964 to 1967, he worked as a manager of
Lear Jet sales in 11 western states. In 1968, he established the
first jet charter service west of the Mississippi River, at VNY.
Today, he is still owner and chief executive officer of Clay Lacy
Aviation, a full-service fixed base operator with a FAR 135 air
taxi charter and aircraft management operation with a fleet of 65
jets, including Lears, Gulfstreams and Boeing Business Jets. With
his exclusive Astrovision-equipped Learjets, Lacy has gathered
video footage for nearly every airline commercial, and for the
aircraft industry and U.S. military.
As a member of the Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild of
America, Lacy has participated in aerial scenes for dozens of
movies, including faking the gear-up landing of a Learjet for the
movie, “Capricorn One,” and performing an actual
gear-up landing with a DC-3 for the film, “The
Island.” His director credits include aerial sequences
for “Top Gun” and “The Right Stuff.” Lacy
was national champion of the Reno National Air Races/Unlimited
Class in 1970. In 1988, he set an “around-the-world speed
record” in a United B-747 SP, while raising $530,000 for
children’s charities.
The man who once said, “I have seldom met an airplane I
didn’t like,” grew up in the birthplace of aviation
manufacturing, Wichita, KS, and knew by of the age of 7 that he
wanted to be a pilot. By age 12, he was working at an airport
trading his time for flying instruction. With his unparalleled
record of flying time in more than 200 different aircraft, Lacy
holds an airline transport license with 32 type ratings, including
for helicopters, sea planes, flight instruction and flight
engineering. He is understandably known in the industry as the
“flyingest pilot ever.”
In 2010, Lacy was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of
Fame, received a Pathfinder Award at the Seattle Museum of Flight
and was awarded the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Certificate by the
Federal Aviation Administration. “Clay Lacy’s name
appears on a great many pages of official aviation record
books,” Bolen said. “We are proud to celebrate his
lifelong devotion to flying airplanes and advancing the
professionalism and safety of our industry with business
aviation’s highest honor.”
John P. "Jack" Doswell Award Recipient Don Spruston
(pictured) is an international business aviation pioneer,
responsible for shaping many of the advances in today’s
business aviation industry, from best practices in safety to
international flight operations as the director general of the
International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) from 1999 to the
present.
Under Spruston’s leadership, IBAC has effectively
advocated for the interests and concerns of business aviation
before the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) –
the global standards-setting body for civil aviation around the
world, including for safety and operations standards. Development
of new safety standards for Annex 6, Part II of the Chicago
Convention governed by ICAO, which addresses the modernization of
operational rules and safety for general aviation worldwide, is a
milestone in the history of IBAC that owes much to Spruston’s
leadership.
Spruston acknowledged the achievement in a recent NBAA tribute
to IBAC’s 30th anniversary, saying deferentially, “It
was significant recognition of business aviation as a trusted
participant in the international process.”
A lifetime aviator, Spruston previously served as managing
partner of Canadian Aviation Safety Associates, where he conducted
evaluations of civil aviation authorities. He also served as
advisor to ICAO in establishing its Universal Safety Oversight
Audit Program. Before joining IBAC, Spruston was director general
of civil aviation in Canada, and also managed a flight department
of over 90 aircraft as director general of aircraft services. He
received his aviation training at the Royal Military College of
Canada, and holds an airline transport pilot license, with
experience flying worldwide cargo operations and system evaluation
flying.
He is a frequent writer on aviation safety, and has been honored
with the Transport Canada Safety Award, the Canadian Owners and
Pilots President Award and the Canadian Aeronautics and Space
Institute C.D. Howe Award. “The global business aviation
community would not be the same without visionaries like Don
Spruston,” Bolen said. “He has been a tremendous
advocate and leader in promoting the industry’s agenda and
furthering its cause. NBAA is pleased to recognize his outstanding
contributions.”
Lacy and Spruston will receive their awards during NBAA's 64th
Annual Meeting & Convention, to be held from October 10 to 12
in Las Vegas, NV, at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Henderson
Executive Airport.
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