Bill was Editor-in-Chief of Business & Commercial Aviation from 2000 to 2020. During his stewardship, the monthly magazine received scores of awards for editorial excellence.
He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the National Business Aviation Association; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Aerospace Media Awards; the Aviation Journalism Award from the National Air Transportation Association; and an Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award for Business Aviation.
Previously, Bill served as Managing Editor of Aviation Week Television. He was the top editor for both Flying and Professional Pilot magazines, as well as a member of the senior editorial staff at Reader's Digest. He also managed communications for FlightSafety International.
Bill has authored or co-authored three aviation books, was an essayist for National Public Radio, wrote aviation documentaries for The Discovery Channel and has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, Smithsonian Air & Space, Popular Mechanics and The Associated Press, among others.
An active aviator, Bill holds a Commercial Pilot license, along with multiengine, instrument, seaplane and glider ratings.
LIKE SO MANY SUCH FLIGHTS, it began with a crash. January 5, 2005, had been a wet and windy day in north central Mississippi and those conditions continued into the night. Shortly after 8 p.m. the phone rang at the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo and the emergency dispatcher reported there had been an automobile accident in Falkner, a small town near the Tennessee line. A crash victim needed to be rushed to treatment.
THEY MADE FOR AN UNUSUAL trio: two men -- one 60 years old and the other a dozen years his senior -- and a young woman, barely more than a teenager, whose stunning features and thousand-watt smile turned heads wherever she went. They had arrived at Centennial Airport outside Denver aboard a Cessna 421 and made their way across the chilly ramp to The Perfect Landing, an airport restaurant with good food and spectacular views. It was Dec. 17, 2004.
A decorated U.S. Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Matt Zuccaro later served in a wide range of civilian flight and executive posts, for charter and corporate operators, overseeing Resorts International's S-61 airline operation, and working in aviation management for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He held a variety of elected posts at the HAI, including chairman, and has been president and chairman of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council. An ATP and CFII in both airplanes and helicopters, Zuccaro has logged in excess of 10,000 flight hours.
