Soon FlightSafety training centers were going up in Kansas, Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Florida and New Jersey. We bought a lot of bricks. We bought a lot of simulators as well. And they were not just for business jets. By the early 1970s we were training airline crews in our Convair, Electra, DC-6, DC-8, DC-9 and DC-10 simulators. But the investment, almost all of which was internally financed, paid off.

In 1967 the company had gross revenues of a little over $4 million. We doubled that in five years and doubled that five years later. We were clearly on to something, but our secret was really no secret at all. Business aviation was expanding rapidly back then as more and more companies came to understand the advantage of flying where they wanted and when they wanted, in fast, comfortable airplanes. These operators weren't enticed by the wonder of aviation; they wanted transportation. And the executives who rode in these machines expected a level of safety equal to or surpassing that provided by the airlines. Well, as it so happened, FlightSafety was the only company with the equipment, staff and experience to provide the training necessary to assure that level of pilot competence. We were in the right place at the right time with the right stuff.