By 1996, although modest by global business measure, FlightSafety could point to some achievements with a certain amount of pride. We were operating more than 100 flight simulators for more than fifty different types of aircraft, from a single-engine Mooney to the Boeing 747 and the 777. Ours was easily the largest simulator fleet in the world. More than 50,000 pilots and maintenance technicians trained with us annually at three dozen learning centers around the world. We were the authorized training company for some twenty different aircraft manufacturers, and we were conducting initial and recurrent training for a number of domestic and international carriers. Our annual revenues were $325 million. We had come a long way in forty-five years.

But don't get the impression that the journey was without any turbulence. We weren't that lucky. Our attempt to operate a helicopter shuttle between the New York City airports and Manhattan failed badly and, fortunately, quickly. We ran Republic Airport for a while, but not profitably.