Upon his retirement as a non-routine flight operations captain from a fractional operator in 2015, Dr. Veillette had accumulated more than 20,000 hours of flight experience in 240 types of aircraft—including balloons, rotorcraft, sea plans, glides, war birds, supersonic jets and large commercial transports. He is an adjunct professor at Utah Valley University. In June 2023, he won the prestigious Bill Gunston Technology Writer of the Year Award.
On May 20, 2002, a Cessna Citation 550 accelerated down 7,200-ft.-long Runway 17L at Will Rogers World Airport at Oklahoma City, destined for Greeley-Weld County Airport in Greeley, Colorado. According to the pilot, he didn't notice any anomalies with the airplane during the preflight examination or while taxiing for takeoff and that the flight controls were free and correct.
If you haven’t yet seen the video of Yves Rossy and Vince Reffet flying formation alongside an Emirates Airbus A380 at 4,000 ft. over Dubai on Oct. 13, 2015, stop reading this now and go immediately to here. This extraordinary aerial ballet will make your day.
From legendary STOL aircraft linking remote communities to a round-the-world quest in a flying machine powered on nothing but the sun’s rays, the innovations of Swiss engineers, pilots and explorers have done much to improve our collective quality of life on this planet.
