It's Nearly Time to Put 2009 Away... and Look Forward -- With Hope

Over the last few weeks ANN has had the pleasure and privilege of expressing our admiration for some of the better products, planes, and people that we worked with in 2009 -- while also expressing a little disappointment (OK, in some cases, more than a little...) and disdain for those other planes, products, and people that for one reason or another made 2009 a bit of a downer.

We've had a bit of fun with the process and written quite a few stories in evaluating the best and worst of all things aviation and aerospace for the past year, though I'm pleased to tell you that we're finally getting down to the end of the line. While the rest of this week will allow us to fill in the blanks on some of the few remaining picks that have yet to be published; next week (the week of January 25th, 2010), we are ready to tell you what we think is the best (and in one or two cases what we think the worst is), about the tumultuous year in aviation that has just closed behind us.

Mind you, we really take this kind of thing very seriously... as a number of the companies and products that have already been named among the very best have started crowing about their achievements and taking a well deserved bow. We realize what impact such an evaluation can have for a company trying to be the best in their chosen field -- and to have the confirmed by ANN. We certainly hope that our judgments and evaluations from 2009 will inspire aviation's finest in 2010 to do ever better, so that all of aviation may close this next year having covered higher ground than that which we crossed in '09.

So... be sure to keep an eye for the following "Final Judgments" (yes, this is our final answer...) on all that astounded us and disappointed us in 2009.

During the week of January 18th, 2010, ANN will announce the following:

• ANN's Number One Plane Of The Year (Overall)

• ANN's TOP Avionics Product Of The Year

• ANN's TOP Gadget Of The Year

• ANN's TOP Upgrade of The Year

• ANN's Number One Aero-Hero (YAY!)

• ANN's Number One Aero-Heartbreaker (BOO!)

• ANN's TOP FBO Experience Of 2009

FMI: Comments/Criticism???? Let Us Have It!