Jessica Reed is a writer and editor with AIN. She joined the team in the fall of 2023 after two years covering the aviation industry at Avionics International. She earned her bachelor&#039;s degree in English (Writing &amp; Rhetoric) from Pepperdine University. Her hometown is St. Louis, Missouri, and she since has resided in Santa Barbara, California, and Brooklyn, New York, among others. She is currently based in Philadelphia.

Writer & Editor

Jessica Reed

The National Business Aviation Association will present its Meritorious Service to Aviation Award to aircraft leasing pioneer and philanthropist Steven F. Udvar-Hazy at the 2026 NBAA Business Aviation Convention &amp; Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), scheduled for October 20 to 22 in Las Vegas.
The award, first given in 1950, is the association’s highest. Udvar-Hazy will accept it on the show’s Horizon Stage, where he will join 2019 recipient Ross Perot Jr. for an onstage discussion of the industry.
“Steven’s influence across the entire aviation/aerospace landscape is profound,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “His story is one of vision, perseverance, and extraordinary impact.”
Udvar-Hazy co-founded International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) in 1973, establishing a leasing model that gave airlines alternative routes to fleet acquisition. He departed ILFC in 2010 and later launched Air Lease Corp.
He was born in Budapest and left Hungary with his family for the U.S. in 1958 following Soviet reoccupation. He first flew in a Piper Cub at 15 and began formal training the next year at the Los Angeles-area field now known as Whiteman Airport, earning his first jet type rating in 1978.
He has logged more than 11,000 flight hours, with more than 9,000 of them as captain in multi-engine jets, and has held an FAA airline transport pilot certificate for 37 years. His type ratings span the Gulfstream IV, V, and G650, which he uses for domestic and international missions, along with Learjet models, and the Cessna Citation CE500 and CE680 families. He has trained annually with FlightSafety International since the 1980s.
Udvar-Hazy also backed the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s companion facility near Washington Dulles International Airport that carries his name. Opened in December 2003, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center displays space shuttle Discovery and NBAA’s permanent business aviation exhibit, centered on Bob Hoover’s Rockwell Shrike Commander.

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NBAA To Honor Udvar-Hazy at BACE with Meritorious Service to Aviation Award

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy earned his first jet type rating in 1978

The NBAA will present its Meritorious Service to Aviation Award to aircraft leasing pioneer and philanthropist Steven F. Udvar-Hazy at NBAA-BACE in October.

NBAA To Honor Udvar-Hazy with Meritorious Service Award

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