[Awards] “The Aerospace Media Dinner and Awards. Celebrating Excellence in Aerospace Journalism and Publishing”. Congratulations to Benoît Denet & all nominees.

The Aerospace Media Dinner and Awards celebrating Excellence in Aerospace Journalism and Publishing was held in Paris on June 16th, 2019.

Among the list of distinguished nominees was our Belgian colleague Benoît Denet who collaborates with Aviation24.be, Silver Wings, Aviation Week, Air Forces Monthly, Air International, Helico Revue and other well-known publishers.

We would like to congratulate Benoît on behalf of the whole Aviation24.be Team.

“The Aerospace Media Dinner is an annual awards dinner celebrating excellence in aerospace journalism and publishing. It was founded in 2012. The Awards take place in London or Paris on the eve of the Farnborough and Paris Airshows, respectively.

Awards are presented to journalists and publications that have been judged to be the best in their category. The Aerospace Media Dinner has become the aviation media networking event and consistently delivers an evening of superb hospitality and entertainment.”

The cheerful dinner took place in the stunning landmark of the Aéro-Club de France located in Paris.

(Video source & credit: © The Aerospace Media Dinner and Awards).

The winners of the 2019 Aerospace Media Awards were as follows :

• Best Young Journalist – sponsored by NAMMO : Valerie Insinna – Defense News
• Best Aviation Image – sponsored by Dassault Aviation : Benoît Denet – Silver Wing

• The Best Safety, Training & Simulation Submission – sponsored by CAE: Matt Thurber – Learning To Fly on Simulated Wings – AIN Publications
• The Best Rotorcraft submission: Robert W. Moorman – Red Planet Rotorcraft – Vertiflite magazine.
• The Best Propulsion submission – sponsored by Pratt & Whitney: Paul Seidenman and David Spanovich – Electric Propulsion Primer – Inside MRO
• The Best Business Aviation Submission – sponsored by Gulfstream: David Esler – Seeing Red Over ‘Gray – Business & Commercial Aviation
• The Best Military Aviation submission – sponsored by Lockheed Martin: Tim Robinson – UK mulls sixth gen fighter project’ – AEROSPACE
• The Best Aerospace & Defence Business submission – sponsored by Honeywell: Peggy Hollinger -How the promise of electric power could transform aviation – Financial Times
• The Innovation in Aerospace Journalism & Publishing Award – sponsored by Collins Aerospace: FINN
• Best UAV/Un-Manned Systems submission: Kelsey Atherton – An explosion in Venezuela brings gimmick drones to the political battlefield – C4ISRNET
• The Best Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) submission – sponsored by AAR: Michael Gubisch – Clear divide over ownership of data – Airline Business
• Best International Publication: Aviation Week & Space Technology
• Best In-depth Aviation Feature – sponsored by Rolls-Royce: Dominic Gates – Flawed analysis, failed oversight: How Boeing, FAA certified the suspect 737 MAX flight control system – The Seattle Times

The 2019 Winners were featured in this debriefing video (Video source & credit : © The Aerospace Media Dinner and Awards) :

Judges Commendation:

• Murdo Morrison – Jobs for the girls Flight International
• The Bill Gunston Technology Writer Of The Year Award – sponsored by Boeing: Bill Read – Aerospace
• The Aerospace Reporter of the Year – sponsored by Dassault Aviation: David Kaminski-Morrow – Flight International
• Lifetime Achievement: Barb Zuehlke
• Lifetime Achievement: Elfan Ap Rees

Some background information regarding our Belgian Award winner “Best Aviation Image – sponsored by Dassault Aviation”.

We are very pleased for our esteemed colleague Benoît Denet who has shown throughout the years true professionalism and his dedicated skill-sets to the different missions allocated to him. Benoît Denet is a 47-year-old photographer-journalist specialising in aeronautics. He collaborates with various foreign magazines such as Aviation Week, Air Forces Monthly, Air International, Helico Revue, … for many years now.

The Winning picture was published as a front cover in the magazine Silver Wing (published in June 2018) and featured two Belgian Air Force Alphajets performing a break.

He is also the author of several exhibitions of aeronautical photographs in Belgium (SHAPE, Florennes AFB, Antwerp Airport). He was also involved in the development of various aeronautical works.

Benoît is also the author if the book depicting F-16s during their missions: “Les Faucons Belges au-dessus de l’Afghanistan”.

Benoît describes the book as follow: “This 170-page book, illustrated with more than 180 photos, size 23.5cm x 23.5 cm is perfect to explain the longest external operation of our F-16s. It is also in direct contact with other external missions led by Belgian pilots such as in Libya, Kosovo and the Iraqi-Syrian conflict.

As I flew over Afghanistan, I became aware of the harshness of the landscape. It is composed of 7,000meter-high mountains and arid plains. The continental climate brings here and there patches of greenery surrounding some villages at the foot of the hills while far from the snowy summits remain despite the summer already well settled.

But what did the Belgian F-16s come to do here? I asked myself this question from my first steps in this distant country in 2008. Looking at the pictures taken in flight by an F-16 pilot, I found that they deserved to be commented on and I wanted to share them with the staff of the Component. They had so many interesting things to say!

By placing the reader within the enemy air operation itself, the book traces the two deployments over more than six years in Afghanistan. Among other things, it evokes the everyday life, the feeling of the pilots, the political aspect as well as the rules of engagement.

Since its presentation, the book has received numerous testimonies of recognition of its quality and content by the professionals involved in these operations.

This book will satisfy all aviation enthusiasts on these far-flung deployments far too little known.”

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Afghanistan
• Chapter 2: The Political Mandate and the Chain of Command
• Chapter 3: Operation Eastern Eagle
• Chapter 4: Operation Guardian Falcon
• Chapter 5: With a JTAC
• Chapter 6: Combat Missions
• Chapter 7: Air refuelling
• Chapter 8: The F-16
• Chapter 9: The anecdotes

This book is in French language and can be ordered on Aviation24 Webshop. It is quite documented and illustrated, the perfect gift for aviation spotters, military friends of the family or just for Father’s day. (25 EUR plus shipping and handling).