Boeing Honors Embry-Riddle as Supplier of the Year in Academia Category

Major Award Based on Dr. Jon French’s Aircraft Passenger Flow Research

Daytona Beach, Fla., May 7, 2010 – The Boeing Company has honored Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and 13 other organizations as winners of its prestigious 2009 Supplier of the Year awards.  Before final selection as a Supplier of the Year, each of the 14 companies had been named one of the 486 recipients of a Boeing Performance Excellence Award for 2009. Boeing has more than 12,000 active suppliers worldwide.

Accepting the award for Embry-Riddle at the Supplier of the Year ceremony held in April in Bellevue, Wash., were Vice President for Research Dr. Christina Frederick-Recascino and Human Factors Professor Jon French

Embry-Riddle was the winner in the Academia category, primarily thanks to research conducted by Dr. French at the University’s Daytona Beach campus.

“Dr. French’s recent effort on our Enplane/Deplane Aircraft Passenger Flow Model was a great success and was considered key to receiving this award,” said Edward Winkler, a Boeing Technical Fellow. “He invented an outstanding analytical tool that gives Boeing a method to analyze various passenger constraints and interferences while boarding an aircraft. It has been a distinct honor for me personally to work with Embry-Riddle and Jon on this exciting and rewarding project – they are very deserving of this significant recognition by Boeing.”

According to Winkler, Boeing will incorporate Dr. French’s findings into future aircraft designs and will submit his passenger flow model for a U.S. patent, listing him as one of the inventors.

Supplier of the Year award recipients were judged on quality, technical expertise, delivery performance,  environmental initiatives, cost, and customer service.

“Boeing and our suppliers are more interconnected now than ever before – combining our talents and capabilities to create the most innovative products and services for our customers and the aerospace industry worldwide,”  said Ray Conner, Boeing Enterprise Leader of Supplier Management. “Every supplier – small and large – is critical to our success, and it is important to recognize these suppliers for demonstrating industry-leading standards of quality, efficiency, and performance.”

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla.,  and Prescott, Ariz., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 170 campuses in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.