Today’s issue of ShowNews features our annual listing of the Top 10 Leaders of European Business Aviation. We pick the movers and shakers, those who are helping create demand for business aviation through clever marketing and innovation, those who are influential in polishing business aviation’s image with the public and politicians alike, and those who are fighting to protect it from unfair regulation.

Piaggio Aero announced the launch of the third-generation Avanti EVO, the world’s fastest civil turboprop in production. While claimed top cruise speed remains unchanged at 402 KTAS, the $7.39 million EVO should be able to fly 50+ miles farther than Avanti II because of reduced drag. A new optional 390-lb. extended-range fuel tank will boost range from 1,470 nm to 1,770 nm.

EBACE is not a defense exhibition – but the effects of the weekend’s 53% referendum decision by Switzerland not to buy 22 Swedish Saab Gripen fighters could be felt by some local companies represented here. The issue is one of offsets. When their aircraft was selected over two years ago, Saab and its associated companies had placed or promised $2.5 billion worth of business with local companies just to earn the right to participate in the competition against France’s Dassault Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon.

When asked about Gulfstream’s plans to develop a supersonic business jet, company president Larry Flynn said the company “continue[s] to invest in a very small way,” while concentrating on its core business.

Switched-on PrivateFly, the U.K. online private jet booking company, now accepts payment in Bitcoin digital currency via BitPay. Monaco-based Olivier Janssens is the world’s first private jet customer to publicize his use of Bitcoin to pay for air travel, doing so for a trip booked through PrivateFly. Janssens, the Belgian tech entrepreneur and Bitcoin tycoon, revealed that his first Bitcoin-powered flight occurred on the evening of 27th January, from Brussels to Nice Cote D’Azur.

When Adam Twidell launched his online business jet charter booking system in 2008, his competitors said nobody would book a private jet online. “We’ve undoubtedly proved that’s not the case,” Twidell, founder and CEO of PrivateFly, says. “Our customers demand speed, price and expertise, and they’re Internet savvy.”

Lawyer Aoife O’Sullivan is a partner at London-headquartered Kennedys, an international law firm, and has rapidly become a respected and passionate advocate of business aviation and a much sought after speaker around the world. She heads a worldwide team of 60 attorneys and finance experts, covering not only business aviation but commercial airlines, military aerospace, even satellites. As O’Sullivan puts it, her team is a team of insiders, “involved in real deals and transactions” and making her opinions and insight highly valued.

Brandon O’Reilly took over as TAG Farnborough’s CEO in 2006 and the pace of change at Britain’s only dedicated business aviation airport hasn’t slackened since. He immediately engaged with the local community and local business representatives and asked them about their chief concerns. “The major concern was, as you would probably expect, noise,” O’Reilly says.