AIN Media Group editor-in-chief Matt Thurber received the National Business Aviation Association’s David W. Ewald Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement and excellence in aviation media in Las Vegas on 19 October, ahead of the opening of the 2026 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition. The award recognises Thurber’s decades of coverage across aviation and his contribution to business-aviation journalism.
NBAA cited Thurber’s subject knowledge, curiosity, fairness, accuracy and editorial leadership at AIN. His professional background includes an Airline Transport Pilot rating, instrument flight instructor qualification and an airframe and powerplant mechanic certificate. Before joining AIN, he was editor of Aviation Maintenance magazine and an associate editor at FLYING magazine.
The Platinum Wing Award is named after David W. Ewald, whose career included helping create Business & Commercial Aviation and co-founding Flight Training magazine. The honour recognises the role of specialist aviation media in explaining developments in business-aviation operations, technology, maintenance, safety and markets.
Aviation Week journalist Lee Ann Shay also received NBAA’s 2026 Gold Wing Award for Journalism Excellence. The awards were presented before the first day of NBAA-BACE, which runs from 20 to 22 October in Las Vegas.