Experience milestone moments with a powerful start to 2026 NBAA-BACE as we set the trajectory for the future of business aviation featuring welcome remarks from NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen, the presentation of the association’s prestigious Meritorious Service to Aviation Award to Steven F. Udvar-Hazy and a fireside chat between Udvar-Hazy and Ross Perot Jr.
Safety First, Safety Always: A Celebration of Organizational and Individual Safety Excellence
Safety is built over years, strengthened by people and proven through performance.
Presented by Stephanie Goetz, this Horizon Stage celebration will honor organizations reaching 50, 60 and 75 years of accident-free operations through the NBAA Flying Safety Awards, highlighting the commitment and operational excellence behind those milestones.
The Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award will also recognize the pilots, maintenance technicians and aviation professionals whose leadership, ethics and selflessness continue to strengthen safety culture across business aviation.
Did you know that nearly 20,000 aircraft were impacted by GPS jamming and spoofing this year? This talk will cover the impacts of GPS interference, the latest trends using GPSThreatMap.com, and available options to help navigate safely through GPS-denied regions.
Regional coastal transportation is stuck between bad options: flying is expensive and slowed by security lines, driving means traffic, and ferries are slow. REGENT's Seaglider offers a new alternative. This session introduces Seagliders — a new class of high-speed, electric, wing-in-ground-effect vehicles built exclusively for water. Floating, hydrofoiling and flying within a wingspan of the surface, Seagliders combine the speed of an aircraft with the accessibility of a boat, offering a faster, lower-cost, zero-emission alternative to short-haul ferries and regional flights. Learn more about the future of maritime mobility and see real footage from the Seaglider's recent flight tests.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford will participate in a fireside chat with NBAA’s SVP, Government Affairs Kristie Greco Johnson for an in-depth discussion providing attendees direct insights from FAA leadership on key aviation priorities. Following this conversation, hear directly from additional FAA leaders shaping new policy for safety, security and certification. This is your premier opportunity to get face-to-face with agency leaders, understand their top priorities, and ask your most pressing operational and compliance questions.
Be part of an inspiring morning session designed exclusively for transitioning service members, veterans and military families. Hear directly from distinguished aviation and legislative leaders about the critical role military talent plays in driving the future of business aviation. Gather with fellow veteran attendees to build your network, gain key industry insights and set the stage for a high-impact day on the exhibit floor.
Learn how AI agents will turn aviation software from systems of record into systems of action.
Partnering with NBAA, Alpha Wingman’s business aviation pitch contest, PitchAv, will return this year on the show floor during NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas. Alpha Wingman will host this aspiring entrepreneur competition allowing individuals and start-ups to pitch their business aviation ideas live to industry-recognized judges.
Every operational decision inherits the quality of the weather data beneath it. Route, fuel, ramp, go/no-go: the call is only as good as its source. The Weather Company has spent over four decades building the world's most trusted weather capabilities, from the WSI Pilotbrief workstation that became a fixture of the FBO weather center to today's SaaS, APIs and embedded meteorologists. Today, corporate flight departments, bizjet fractional operators and FBO chains rely on it. But business aviation rarely runs on a schedule set weeks out, and it rarely flies where the airlines fly. When a trip materializes on a Friday afternoon and departs Saturday morning for a field with no tower and no TAF, the operation needs more than a data feed. It needs forecasts that hold up at a GA field the way they do at a major commercial hub, and 24/7 live forecasting teams on speed dial. Ravi Vanmali, SVP of Aviation, shows how trusted data and on-call human expertise become common situational awareness across the operations center, the airside and the cockpit, and why the biggest gains come when the best data is also the shared one.
© 2026 National Business Aviation Association