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

General aviation aircraft deliveries and billings were up across all segments in the first half of the year, according to statistics released this morning by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Total airplane industry billings rose from $9.1 billion to $9.2 billion while rotorcraft sales climbed 29.9 percent from $1.4 to $1.9 billion.
Worldwide business jet deliveries rose by 2.4 percent year-over-year over the first six months, with 296 handed over. Bombardier delivered five more Challengers this year than a year ago, for a total of 51 aircraft. Embraer saw its six-month delivery total rise by nine aircraft, buoyed by the Phenom 300E. It handed over 10 additional copies of the light jet than it did in the first half of 2022.
Gulfstream’s deliveries for the first half of this year trailed its 2022 total by two aircraft, while Textron handed over eight fewer Citations. Dassault—which only publishes its delivery totals twice a year—was five units off last year’s pace.
Light jet manufacturer Cirrus had a strong bounce back, boosting the number of SF50 Vision Jets it delivered through the first six months of the year by 14 aircraft, while Pilatus remained virtually static, handing over one fewer PC-24 than it did a year ago. Honda Aircraft’s 10 HondaJet deliveries this year equaled its total from the first half of 2022.
Eclipse Aerospace—which recently resumed production of the Eclipse 550 after a five-year hiatus—delivered two of the VLJs in the first half of this year.
In the turboprop segment, while deliveries overall rose by 17.4 percent, for high-end pressurized turboprops, deliveries for the first half of 2023 outstripped the same period in 2022 by nearly 15 percent, spurred by Daher, which increased its production of single-engine TBMs by 16 units year over year.&nbsp;
Pilatus improved on its first-half 2022 total by five additional PC-12s, while Piper improved deliveries of its M600 single from 14 last year to 18 in the first half of 2023. Epic Aircraft remained static, handing over six E1000 GXs in both years.
Meanwhile, multi-engine turboprop deliveries declined. Textron Aviation, which delivered 30 King Air 260s and 360s last year saw that number decrease to 22 in the first half of this year. Piaggio delivered one Avanti Evo in the first half of last year and had no deliveries in the same period of 2023.
For bizliners, Airbus delivered no ACJs in the first half of 2023, compared with four (three ACJ330-200s and an ACJ TwoTwenty) a year ago. Boeing didn't hand over any BBJs in the first half of either year.
Piston-powered aircraft production improved by 11.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
On the rotorcraft side, turbine helicopter deliveries for the first half of the year jumped by more than 30 percent compared to the first six months of 2022, led by Leonardo Helicopters. The 79 rotorcraft it handed over in the first half of 2023 represented a nearly 84 percent improvement year over year.
Airbus Helicopters tallied a better than 27 percent increase from its 1H2022 numbers.&nbsp; Robinson Helicopter’s output of R66s rose from 47 a year ago to 62, a nearly 32 percent increase. Bell was two units off from its 1H2022 delivery totals. Having emerged from bankruptcy, MD Helicopters resumed production of its MD530F and added three of them to the 1H2023 rotorcraft delivery totals. Sikorsky handed over one S-92 in the first half of the year, having delivered two a year ago.
As the industry continues recovering from the pandemic and the resulting supply chain issues, GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce noted the need for stability and direction from regulatory authorities, particularly in the U.S. “Not only does the FAA need an effective permanent leader during this transformative time for aviation, but the agency is in the process of being reauthorized by Congress,” he stated. “We are encouraged by the bipartisanship we have seen throughout the legislative process and hope that the momentum to finalize an FAA reauthorization bill continues to build.”

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