A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

While many prognosticators forecast last year as the beginning of a resurgence for business aircraft manufacturers, those hopes will have to move to this year, according to 2012 aircraft delivery numbers released this morning by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. While 2012 saw a modest increase in overall turbine aircraft shipments, the gains were solely in the lower-end, non-pressurized turboprop segment as overall billings decreased by nearly 1 percent from $19 billion to $18.9 billion year-over-year.


For the business jet segment, the 672 aircraft handed over last year represented 24 fewer than the previous year and the lowest tally since 2004. Those delivery totals were buoyed by a fourth-quarter push that saw more than a third of the year’s business jets handed over to customers.


Although turboprops overall saw a better than 10-percent year-over-year increase–due mainly to GAMA’s recent inclusion of agricultural aircraft manufacturers–pressurized model deliveries declined by 6 percent, from 239 in 2011 to 224 last year.


“While the 2012 shipment and billing data were mixed, the numbers don’t reflect the amount of development work in progress in general aviation,” said GE’s Brad Mottier, who is GAMA’s chairman this year. “The general aviation segment is poised for resurgence in the next few years as these new technologies [achieve certification] and enter the market.”

GAMA: Business Aircraft Deliveries Down in 2012

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