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

Worldwide business jet deliveries rose by 4 percent, to 129 units, in the first quarter, according to <a href="http://gama.aero/files/documents/2013ShipmentReport0509A.pdf">statistics released today</a> by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Pressurized turboprops, meanwhile, saw an increase of nearly 53 percent year-over-year.


Billings for all GA airplanes–including pistons, turboprops and jets–totaled $4.6 billion in the first three months, up 31.7 percent from the same period last year. “We are very pleased to see a shift to the positive for GA airplanes, which extends across all airplane segments, for the first quarter of 2013,” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce.


The rise in jet deliveries was led by Gulfstream, which bettered its year-over-year output by more than 50 percent, including eight more large-cabin jets handed over in the first quarter. Bombardier saw more than a 34-percent increase, due mainly to a rise in deliveries of its large-cabin Globals from four in the year-ago first quarter to 17 in the first three months of this year. The two airframers were the only business jet manufacturers to show an increase in deliveries year-over-year.


Despite the demise of the Hawker line, Beechcraft, which recently emerged from bankruptcy protection, doubled deliveries of the Hawker 4000 from the previous year, handing over the last six airframes in its inventory during the first quarter. The Wichita manufacturer also made a strong showing in its now core turboprop business–the 34 King Airs it delivered in the first quarter nearly doubled the 19 shipped in the first quarter of 2012.

GAMA: Bizjet, Turboprop Deliveries Rise in 1Q13

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