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.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

Daher’s Kodiak 100 utility airplane was designed for ruggedness and backcountry flying. To demonstrate its capabilities, the airframer partnered with the <a href="https://backcountrydefib.wordpress.com/">Backcountry Aviation Defibrillator Project</a> to deliver lifesaving devices to four remote airstrips in Idaho, where the aircraft is built.
The goal of the project is to position automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in high-traffic, remote airfields. Equipped with Wi-Fi capabilities,&nbsp;those AEDs will be able to broadcast their availability through flight planning applications.
Daher provided a pair of Kodiaks along with pilots, fuel, and logistical assistance to deliver four Zoll 3 defibrillators—one of which it sponsored­—to Cavanaugh Bay Airport (K66S) in northern Idaho, to Big Creek (KU60) and Johnson Creek (K3U2) airports in the central part of the state, and to Smiley Creek Airport (KU87) in south-central Idaho. These missions showcased the single-engine turboprop’s short-takeoff-and-landing capabilities at the four unpaved fields.
“At Daher, our philosophy is: 'We support those who care for aviation,' and the Backcountry Aviation Defibrillator Project flights are a continuation of this commitment,” said Nicolas Chabbert, senior v-p of Daher’s aircraft division and CEO of Kodiak Aircraft.
Chabbert, who piloted one of the AED delivery flights, noted that the company has also recently used one of its Kodiaks to transport U.S. Forest Service personnel and equipment to two isolated grass strips in southeastern Idaho’s mountains.

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