Alain Garcia Receives the 2004 SAE Aerospace Engineering Leadership Award

Warrendale, PA (December 07, 2004) - Alain Garcia, Executive Vice President of Engineering for Airbus SAS, was selected as this year's recipient of the SAE Aerospace Engineering Leadership Award. A representative accepted the award on his behalf on Wednesday, November 3, 2004 during the World Aviation Congress in Reno, Nevada.

This award, established in 1992, annually honors individuals for outstanding contributions to the field of aerospace engineering-those individuals who have applied their leadership skills to make contributions that have had great positive impact on the aerospace community.

Garcia was recognized for his lifetime career achievements in the design and construction of Commercial Air Transports. He has developed great engineering and leadership skills in his contributions to the design of airplanes starting with Concorde, the first Supersonic commercial air transport; the Airbus A320, which has become the most successful aircraft put into service by Airbus; the A330/A340 large wide body; and the Airbus A380, which has significantly advanced the state of the art for Commercial Air Transports.

Garcia has been Executive Vice President of Airbus SAS since 2001. He joined Aerospatiale (then Sud Aviation) in 1966 as a flight controls engineer in the Concorde program. He became head of powerplant systems in 1972, where he developed new standards related to powerplant integration. In 1987, he became Chief Engineer for Aerospatiale in charge of the A330/A340 program from its beginning to initial in-service years. In 1994, Garcia was appointed Vice President, General Engineering, at Airbus Industrie, in charge of the consortium's engineering policies and aircraft performance, and in 1997, he succeeded Bernard Ziegler as Senior Vice President of Engineering.
Garcia graduated in 1966 from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Industrie de Strasbourg, France and continued his training in aeroengines in Bristol, England and aerodynamics at ENSICA, in France. He has taught thermodynamics and propulsion in Toulouse engineering colleges, and participated in a number of international seminars and symposia. He is a member of the French National Academy of Air and Space, emeritus member of AAAF and Fellow of the RAeS.