profession: pilot career: actor - Jet Aviation

Outlook 

Magazine 02/2008 

Making fashion sparkle 

Swarovski has used 

precision, design and a 

touch of glamour to keep 

its crystals in fashion for 

over a hundred years. 

Luxury Service Premium Switzerland Leading visitors to luxury in Switzerland 16 | Air Racing The Rocket 

Racing League 24 | Innovation Decision 32 | Resort Terravista 38 | Candy The traditional Swiss herb candy 44

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Editorial 

Dear business friends and colleagues, 

Jet Aviation continues to make headlines in what has proven to be one of the busiest 

and most exciting years in our history. In mid August, General Dynamics announced it 

had signed an agreement to acquire all shares of the Jet Aviation Group from our current 

shareholder, the Permira Funds. 

The acquisition by General Dynamics, subject to normal regulatory approvals and 

expected to close by the end of 2008, will expand its participation in the rapidly growing 

global market for business aviation services. Jet Aviation will continue with its current, 

highly successful business model, serving the entire aircraft manufacturing community and its global client base, as a new business unit 

within the General Dynamics Aerospace group. This transaction caps a dynamic three-year ownership period by Permira, which saw 

unprecedented levels of capital investment and growth in all of Jet Aviation’s primary lines of business. 

General Dynamics’ ownership will provide a stable and long-term outlook for Jet Aviation, and we are very much encouraged by the 

enthusiastic feedback we have received from customers, partners and employees following the announcement. 

On a different front, Jet Aviation’s support of the 2008 Olympic Games from its new FBO at Capital International Airport in Beijing, represented 

one of the most challenging and exciting events that we have ever undertaken. With our joint venture partner, Deer Air, and in 

partnership with Capital Jet, a subsidiary of Capital Airport Holding, over 400 operators arriving from around the world appreciated 

Jet Aviation’s dedication to delivering top ramp and maintenance services with our on-site staff of over 30 professionals. Our success in 

China was indeed a team effort, which also included representatives from Bombardier, Dassault, Gulfstream and Honeywell who were 

present at our FBO to rapidly support technical issues when required. 

Jet Aviation will be well positioned in the post-Olympic period when we will add line maintenance services to our FBO business, once the 

construction of the new hangar is complete in the first quarter of 2009. China is one of business aviation’s most important emerging 

markets and we intend to be a key facilitator in its growth. 

Driven by rapid growth, we have continued to evolve Jet Aviation’s current EMEA & Asia organization and we have re-structured around 

our principal lines of business in order to achieve better alignment, consistency and synergies between business activities. Completions, 

maintenance, FBO operations and aircraft services will each have dedicated leadership teams, reporting to the COO EMEA & Asia. These 

changes, we believe, will serve to more effectively and efficiently deliver the full benefits of our global network to our customers, wherever 

in the world their travels may take them. 

Sincerely yours, 

Peter G. Edwards 

Chief Executive Officer 

Outlook 02/2008 

3

Contents 

03 Editorial Peter G. Edwards, Chief Executive Officer 

06 Swarovski Making fashion sparkle 

16 Luxury Service Premium Switzerland: Leading visitors to luxury in Switzerland 

24 Air Racing The Rocket Racing League: The sport of racing rockets 

32 Innovation Decision: Making boats faster with carbon composites 

4 Outlook 02/2008 

Page 06 Page 16

Page 24 

Page 32 

38 Resort Terravista: Bringing golf, luxury and charter services to a beach paradise in Brazil 

44 Candy Ricola: The traditional Swiss herb candy 

50 Jet Aviation Inside News 

58 Masthead and Advertisers 

Page 38 

Page 44 


5

Making fashion sparkle 

In 1892, Daniel Swarovski invented an electric machine for the 

precision cutting of crystal. The crystals he created with it were 

immediately successful and led to the formation of the Swarovski 

company, which has used creative products, good marketing 

and strong relationships with designers to keep crystals an integral 

part of fashion. 

The glimmering stage jewels worn by the opera singer Maria 

Callas were made by the Marangoni studio in Milan. She 

performed over 600 times in the jewelry, which often contained 

Swarovski crystal. It is said she became so attached to the pieces 

that she not only wore them on stage, but also took them every- 

where with her in the trunk of her car. 

When Marilyn Monroe sang “Happy Birthday” to President Ken- 

nedy in 1962, she also wore Swarovski crystals. The stones were 

not in jewelry, however, but rather thousands of them were handsewn 

onto her skin-tight, flesh-colored gown. 

Crystals made by Swarovski have been seen on stage and screen 

in many forms and on many stars. Marlene Dietrich, Audrey 

Hepburn, Elton John, Kylie Minogue and Madonna have used 

them, and on her 2006 tour Shakira played a guitar covered with 

6 Outlook 01/2008 

pink crystals. The stones are regularly seen on the red carpets of 

awards and events, and are also found on prominent items such 

as the star on top of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and 

the chandelier at the Metropolitan Opera House. 

For most of its history, the Austrian company supplied crystals 

to other businesses. The clients were usually designers of clothing, 

jewelry or chandeliers who used the crystals in their original 

work. Then in 1976 an employee was playing around with crystal 

elements used to make chandeliers and glued them together 

to make a mouse. This was the beginning of the company’s 

assortment of crystal figurines. 

Swarovski began to design other objects, expanding from its role 

as a crystal supplier. Today the company has two major divisions: 

one producing precision-cut crystal elements or components,

the other using these same elements to make finished crystal products such as jewelry, 

fashion accessories and homeware. 

Swarovski also has a few business units that grew out of technologies and products it 

developed in connection with its crystal business. In 1917 the company began to 

produce its own grinding and dressing tools, which became the brand Tyrolit. After 

designing a pair of binoculars, the family entered the optics business in 1935, and it 

launched its Swarflex unit for the production of reflective glass elements for road safety 

in 1950. The company has also applied its technology for precision cutting to true 

gemstones in what is now its Enlightened division. 

Another business that grew out of company activities is Tyrolean Jet Services, which 

was formed to put the aircraft in Swarovski’s corporate flight department to use for 

charter flights. Tyrolean Jet Services has a long-standing relationship with Jet Aviation, 

both for maintenance and operations. Jet Aviation began by maintaining the company’s 

first Falcon 20 aircraft in 1984, and today maintains its Global Express and Citation VII 

aircraft. 

Crystals and design 

The sale of crystal elements remains the company’s largest business, and it now 

includes the Crystalized – Swarovski Elements brand, which makes those elements 

available to individuals. The company units that produce finished products are divided 

according to both product type and level of exclusivity. The Daniel Swarovski line out of 

Paris is the company’s high-end couture division, making jewelry, handbags, accessories 

and interior design objects. The Swarovski Jewelry Collection is original work for a 

less extravagant budget. The company also has divisions that create lighting, including 

Crystal Palace, which is dedicated to the reinvention of the chandelier as an art form. 

8 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

01 Maria Callas wearing Swarovski crystal as 

she sings Puccini’s Tosca 

02 Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy Birthday 

Mr. President” in 1962 

03 Daniel Swarovski I and his three sons 

03 

The family company 

The Swarovski company remains 100 

percent family owned. There are about 

60 family members who hold shares, and 

a supervisory board made up of five of 

these family members represents their 

interests. Each business has an executive 

board, and all of the boards are made up 

of fourth-generation or fifth-generation 

direct descendants of Daniel Swarovski I.

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01 Bohemia in the 

19th century 

02 Wattens, in Austria’s 

Tyrol region, in 1895 

03 The young Daniel 

Swarovski I, always 

inventing 

Swarovski works hard to show designers and consumers the 

many possible uses for crystal. It holds events for designers and 

works together with them on objects using crystal to be displayed 

at other shows and galleries. Throughout its history, the company 

has worked on developing quality techniques for applying cry- 

stals to various materials, such as leather and wood. Swarovski 

knows that the easier it is for a designer to achieve a quality 

effect with crystals, the more likely he or she is to use them. 

The company recently invited over 100 artists and designers 

from more than 22 countries to create an item related to wed- 

dings, using Swarovski crystal. The project resulted in dresses 

ranging from an ultra-modern sculptural dress, to a variation on 

the 450-year-old tradition of the kimono, to an embroidered 

Arabian gold tunic. The designers also created objects such as 

bouquets, bed linen and table settings. There was even a mink- 

lined sleeping mask. 

The beginnings 

The relationship between the Swarovski family and designers has 

always been a close one. This was a result both of the business 

necessity of such connections and the family’s interest and 

10 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

03 

enthusiasm for the creative uses of crystal. Company founder 

Daniel Swarovski grew up in a small town in the mountains of 

northern Bohemia, in what is today the Czech Republic. His 

village was near Gablonz, the center of Bohemia’s thriving crystal 

and costume jewelry industry. His interest in design and decora- 

tion was instilled at a young age. 

He trained as a crystal cutter, apprenticing to his father and 

other local craftsmen. Always interested in new ways of doing 

things, he began setting crystal stones in metal jewelry settings. 

At age 18, he took his first invention, a machine for setting crystal 

stones, to Paris. This was the beginning of what was to be a life- 

long relationship with designers in the French fashion center. 

Three years later, in 1883, he visited the First Electric Exhibition 

in Vienna. Fascinated by the potential of electricity, he set out 

to invent a machine for cutting and polishing crystal jewelry 

stones. Nine years later he was able to patent one. 

In 1895 he and his family moved to Wattens in Austria’s Tyrol 

region. Here he was able to use water power, and he was away 

from prying eyes. In those days, the high mountains of the Tyrol

provided a formidable barrier to his competitors in Gablonz. 

Wattens was also on the railway that ran to Paris. Together with 

his brother-in-law Franz Weis and a Paris customer, Armand 

Kosman, he formed the Swarovski company in 1895. The new 

crystal stones became known as “Pierres Taillees du Tyrol.” 

This was a time when the cities of Middle Europe – Prague, 

Budapest, Bucharest and Vienna – were vibrant with art, 

music, literature and science. It was the time of Strauss, Rilke, 

Klimt and Freud. When Daniel Swarovski visited Vienna, the 

baroque beauty of the Austrian capital was meeting with radi- 

cal art movements such as the Wiener Sezession, which was 

aimed at making good design available to everyone. It was a 

time when the traditional was being challenged by the 

modern, and also combined with it. The Swarovski company 

grew from these roots, with these ideas. 

01 02 

The Swarovski crystals were more precisely cut and consis- 

tently sparkling than earlier crystals, and they were an immedi- 

ate success. In 1908, Swarovski began to manufacture the 

raw crystal material and by 1913 he had found a recipe that 

significantly refined and improved the crystal. A little later he 

experimented with color, which gave crystal a permanent place 

in fashion. 

01 Rossella Tarabini 

features crystal 

in her bustier for 

Anna Molinari 

02 Sofa by Squint, 

shoes by Jonathan 

Kelsey, crystals by 

Swarovski 

The Swarovskis began to work closely with designers such as 

Chanel, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga and then, later Christian Dior. 

In the 1920s, the Jazz Age, Swarovski crystal became an es- 

sential fashion component for shimmering dance dresses, as 

well as the strings of crystal beads that often accompanied 

them. Crystal began to appear on the costumes of music hall 

and cabaret artists, including the singers Mistinguette and 

Josephine Baker. In 1931, Swarovski launched a fabric band of 

crystals for cocktail dresses, shoes, belts, bridal gowns and 

cabaret costumes. 

Drawing from a rich history 

Until the mid 1970s, Swarovski did not sell to customers, but 

rather to other businesses. Then the crystal-figurine collection 

was launched, followed by the Daniel Swarovski couture line. 

The company had not been using its name prominently, but 

rather sold its products mostly under “Pierre Taillees du Tyrol.” 

In 1976 the company changed this and began to emphasize 

“Swarovski.” 


11

Swarovski headquarters in Austria’s Tyrol 

Because the company had not been heavily involved in marketing and branding, it does 

not have a collection of posters and advertising material as many companies do. What 

it does have are magazines from the last decades that contain pictures or mentions of 

Swarovski products. These magazines are stored in the archives at the company’s 

marketing building in Wattens. The building is modern, sparkling white and spotless. 

The only blemish, as one walks along the basement floor toward the archive, is the 

system of hoses and pumps removing the moisture left by recent floods. Wattens is 

surrounded by beautiful high mountains, and every so often the weather can make this 

topography a problem. 

Along the archive walls are heavy metal shelves that face each other. They can be 

moved with the help of large gray cranks. In the middle of the room are two old paintings 

of Swarovski production facilities. One painting shows the first facility, which is 

higher up the hill than the current factory and is still used for certain businesses such 

as cutting true gemstones. The second painting shows the buildings at the current 

headquarters and main production area. Many current buildings are not on the painting, 

including the building with the large letters S-W-A-R-O-V-S-K-I. 

Daniel Swarovski bought a few crystal cutters to Wattens from Bohemia, but he mostly 

hired local farmers and trained them. In order to make sure the farmers felt that they 

belonged to the company, Swarovski supported several employee associations, such as 

a soccer team, a singing group and a bicycling club. 

The archive has a book from the cycling group that is dated 1900 to 1905. In the front 

is a membership list in neat penmanship. Further back are descriptions of trips the 

group took, complete with participant signatures and drawings. 

12 Outlook 02/2008 

The Silver Crystal Collection 

In 1976, a Swarovski employee was 

experimenting with shapes made out of 

chandelier parts, when he found he had 

created a mouse. This mouse became a 

bestseller at the Innsbruck Winter 

Olympic Games. It also became the first 

element of what was to become a new 

division geared toward the design and 

manufacture of crystal products. 

A hedgehog came next, then a cat, and 

soon a collection was born. It was named 

Silver Crystal because of the silvery glow 

when the crystals were held to the light. 

The figurines have since become cult 

items. Many figurines are given stories 

that include mention of both the good 

and the bad sides of their personalities. 

Collectors of the figurines have their own 

club. The Swarovski Collectors Society 

has over 400,000 members spread 

across 170 countries. Members have 

access to special figurines and organized 

trips, and they receive the Swarovski 

magazine. They also receive free entrance 

to Kristallwelten in Wattens, and can use 

a special lounge at the attraction.

On top of a shelf next to the books are two small crowns from a 

Viennese Opera Ball. Swarovski crystal has been used in the 

crowns since 1959. Three years ago, the company also began 

designing the crowns. 

On the same shelf, there is a large, imperfect lump of uncut 

crystal. The company displays this to point out that not only has 

it mastered the art of cutting crystals, but also the art of making 

them. With an effective recipe as well as mastery of the material’s 

cooling requirements, Swarovski produces crystal without bubbles 

or other imperfections. 

Old sample boards show Swarovski’s selections from bygone 

years. It is hard to capture the color and other qualities of a 

crystal in a photograph, so the company would send designers 

small boards with samples of different crystals mounted on them. 

14 Outlook 02/2008 

There are also two packets of folded paper, each containing 10 

grams of crystals. Back in the days when travel to Wattens was 

more difficult, these samples would be sent to designers so they 

could make sure the crystals were exactly what they wanted 

before placing a large order. 

Crystal Worlds 

A two-minute trip from the marketing building to the center of 

town shows that, although travel to Wattens has become significantly 

easier, the town itself remains small, with less than 8,000 

inhabitants. Swarovski has about 6,000 employees there, but 

this does not mean that every adult works for the company, since 

not every one of its employees lives in Wattens. It is clear, however, 

that the company dominates the town. A statue of company 

founder Daniel Swarovski stands in the center, in front of a 

school. 

01

01 Crystal World’s Ice Passage lights 

up as visitors move through 

02 Salvador Dali melts time in 

the entry hall 

03 Exhibits are designed to 

trigger the imagination 

The best-known attraction in Wattens 

also belongs to Swarovski. It is Kristall- 

welten, or Crystal Worlds, a series of 

exhibits dedicated to crystal. The center 

was created in 1995 under the direction 

of the Austrian multi-media artist Andre 

Heller. It was built to celebrate Swarov- 

ski’s 100th anniversary and proved so 

popular that it was expanded twice. 

02 

03 

Crystal Worlds has 14 Chambers of 

Wonder, guarded by the “giant” whose 

head serves as the building’s entrance. 

Giants play an important role in the folk- 

lore of the region, and they are always 

assigned positive characteristics. This 

Wonderland in Innsbruck 

Swarovski’s Innsbruck store, just 13 kilometers from the company’s head- 

quarters in Wattens, Austria, is in the middle of the old town. It is near the 

famous “Golden Roof,” the balcony roof that was decorated with 2,657 

fire-gilded copper tiles in 1500 for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. 

The store is in “The Golden Rose,” an even older building that dates to the 

15th century. 

Together with the Wattens Crystal Worlds, this store sells certain products 

that cannot be purchased anywhere else in the world. It also houses exhibits 

in the room downstairs, which is painted black and contains century-old 

barrel vaults. It once displayed Elton John’s red piano, and there was also 

an exhibit of dresses that belonged to Shirley Bassey, the Welsh singer who 

recorded the theme songs to the movies Gold Finger, Diamonds are Forever 

and Moonraker. The most dramatic of her crystal-covered dresses weighed 

30 kilograms. 

The current display is Winter Wonderland by the Dutch designer Tord 

Boontje. Crystal, mirrors, fur, white steel shapes and small bright lights 

create a dramatic effect against the black walls. The room is turned 

into a kind of garden of winter images – creative, intertwined and somewhat 

mystical. Boontje has said he was inspired by his young daughter, 

an influence that can be seen in elements of fairy tales and innocence. 

giant traveled the world collecting stories and then settled in Wattens to tell the 

stories and protect the crystals. Chambers of Wonder can be found in castles in 

the region, where they were filled with treasures and curiosities and served as a type 

of entertainment. 

The blue entrance hall exhibits the world’s largest crystal, the Centenar, which was 

created for the 100th birthday celebration. It has 300,000 carats, 100 facets and 

weighs 62 kilograms. Next to it is the smallest crystal with 17 facets and a diameter 

of just 0.8 millimeters.There are also art works by Keith Haring, Niki de Saint Phalle, 

Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol there. An 11-meter-high crystal wall stands on one 

side of the room and leads visitors back into the 14 chambers. The theme in the 

chambers is creativity. They seem to be experiments in what can be done when 

stories are interpreted by means of light, beauty and pattern. Crystal Worlds is a look 

at all the dimensions and possibilities of crystal, in a way that reflects the spirit and 

history of Swarovski. Creative applications of solid technologies do not only entertain. 

They have also kept the company successful for over 100 years. 


15

Luxury Service | Premium Switzerland 

Leading visitors to luxury in Switzerland 

16 Outlook 02/2008 

Switzerland has a large offering 

of luxury goods and accommoda- 

tions, as well as interesting events, 

renowned schools and advanced 

medical care. With Premium Swit- 

zerland the country now also has 

a platform designed to coordinate 

these various elements and create 

an all-around luxury experience. 

A true luxury experience is comprehensive. 

The details are just right and transitions 

are seamless. In order for a visitor to have 

such an experience abroad, it must be 

planned by someone with both local 

knowledge and an eye for quality. 

Switzerland has a wide range of high-end 

hotels, spas, medical facilities, education 

institutions, stores and events. What was 

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service that could take elements of 

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package that met all of a client’s needs. 

Recognizing the lack of such a service, 

Switzerland Tourism, the Swiss national 

tourism board, partnered with Premium

01 

02 

Switzerland to offer the kind of luxury help 

that lies beyond the tourism board’s com- 

petencies. “Premium Switzerland gives us 

an option for people who want more than 

just a five-star hotel,” explains Urs Eber- 

hard, deputy director of Switzerland 

Tourism. “The service offers a personal, 

time-intensive guidance that allows clients 

to get everything from one source.” 

Premium Switzerland is a service of the 

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was born after Peter Zombori 

and partners founded Swixmed to assist 

foreigners who wanted to come to Switzerland 

for medical treatment. As the 

01 The Grand Hotel Park in Gstaad 

02 Wellness oasis from “Spa Chakra” 

03 “Spa Chakra” bathing and relaxing 

spaces 

03 

partners organized medical care, they saw 

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They founded Mehrwert to help arrange 

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Several private banks worked with Mehrwert 

to provide luxury experiences for their 

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land developed the idea of the web portal 

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About 98 percent of Premium Switzerland’s 

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52 outside experts. 

Premium Switzerland breaks its services 

down into several main categories: events, 


17


Badrutt’s Palace, St. Moritz 

art, travel, financial services, education, 

medical treatment, retail, brands and spas. 

These are, however, just groupings and 

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of needs that fall between and beyond 

categories. 

To accommodate business jet travel needs, 

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is partnering with Premium Switzerland to 

18 Outlook 02/2008 

meet its clients’ travel requirements. This 

partnership goes beyond simply delivering 

air taxi lifts and includes the entire range 

of the company’s business aviation services. 

Jet Aviation also helps Premium 

Switzerland promote its new platform to 

international clients visiting Switzerland. 

Planning a visit 

Clients generally request accommodations 

as part of a travel package. Sometimes 

luxury clients want to stay in a five-star 

hotel, and sometimes they prefer a villa. 

Premium Switzerland has established relationships 

with many of Switzerland’s top 

five-star hotels, which helps the service to 

fulfill special requests from clients. It also 

has a villa expert dedicated to finding just 

the right location and layout for a client. 

Premium Switzerland can fulfill specific, 

difficult requests. The company was recently 

contacted by a Swiss consulate in 

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01 


01 Swiss museums and art 

galleries are among the 

best of the world 

02 300 students from 

around the world study 

at the Lyceum Alpinum 

in Zuoz 

20 Outlook 02/2008 

02 

famous in India’s Bollywood scene 

wanted to visit the Swiss resort town of 

Gstaad and was having trouble finding 

accommodations. Premium Switzerland 

saw that the town was indeed sold out, 

but the company happened to know that 

a Swiss industrial family had a very high- 

end guest house in Gstaad. Premium 

Switzerland contacted the family, ex- 

plained the situation, and asked if they 

would consider renting out the guest 

house. The family decided they would 

rent it, and that the money would go to 

the family’s foundation. 

While staying in Switzerland, clients some- 

times want to have a look at international 

schools for their children. Premium 

Switzerland’s education expert is very 

familiar with these schools, which is 

Guided to Art 

Shopping for art can be an easier, 

more interesting experience if a 

visitor has a gallery tour planned 

for them by Premium Switzerland. 

Clients get VIP treatment at 

galleries such as Zurich’s Galerie 

Gmurzynska, where two elegant 

upstairs rooms are used for 

discussions, coffee and even 

dinners to give clients time 

to talk to curators and consider 

the selection. The gallery 

employs three art historians, has 

an extensive library and puts 

out a thorough catalogue for each 

exhibition. Extra attention from 

members of the staff facilitates 

an evaluation of the works of 

art and enriches the experience.

important, because both the subject mat- 

ter and the styles at the schools differ. 

Some of the schools make strict demands 

on the students, both academically and in 

terms of behavior. Others pamper stu- 

dents. The system under which the school 

operates, such as the British and Swiss 

systems, also varies. Some of Premium 

Switzerland’s clients want the school to 

have a specialization such as art or 

science, and others would like to see 

aspects of a traditional finishing school in 

the education. 

Premium Switzerland’s access to the experts 

and experience of Swixmed makes it 

outstanding at finding the right doctor and 

clinic for a client’s needs. The company is 

knowledgeable about medical specialists 

and also has a board of experts it consults 

Monastery library in St. Gallen 

for difficult cases. In addition to coordinating 

treatments and taking care of introductions, 

Premium Switzerland will make sure 

that languages are not a problem and that 

all of the client’s cultural needs are met. 

For those who want to shop, a shopping 

expert will arrange a trip corresponding to 

a client’s tastes and will also make sure 

the client gets VIP treatment while in the 


21


01 Girard-Perregaux opened its first 

worldwide boutique in Gstaad 

02 All surfaces of the boutique were 

built of the special wood wenge 

shops. At Bucherer jewelry shops, for ex- 

ample, special lounges allow for comfort 

and leisurely decision making. Premium 

Switzerland also has arrangements that 

allow for special treatment when shopping 

for top watches, such as Blancpain, Girard 

Perregaux and Audemars Piguet. 

Premium Switzerland can help clients with 

their banking needs. Along with general 

advice on the options available in Switzer- 

land, the service has close relationships 

22 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

with Credit Suisse, swisspartners Invest- 

ment Network, Schroder & Co. Bank AG 

and Investec Trust (Switzerland) S.A. The 

service makes sure clients get advice they 

can trust. 

Guests sometimes want access to specific 

events while in Switzerland. Some 

of these events, such as ArtBasel, are 

not difficult to attend. Gaining access 

to other events can be much trickier. 

Premium Switzerland was, for example, 

able to get excellent seats for clients at 

the European Soccer Championships in 

Switzerland. It was not an easy task, but 

experience and networking paid off. 

Sometimes a trip or a move to Switzerland 

involves administrative details that can be 

difficult for a foreigner to understand. Pre- 

mium Switzerland helps here, too. If the 

service does not know the best way to 

handle an administrative issue, it can steer 

a client towards an expert who will know.

Premium Switzerland can, for example, 

help clients get residence permits when 

they relocate, get work permits for their 

staff, and deal with the legal aspects of 

buying a house. 

Whether a visit to Switzerland is for medi- 

cal reasons, pleasure, or the search for a 

place to educate one’s children, it can be 

smooth and up to the highest standards. 

One just has to ask the people who know 

how it’s done. 

01 

02 

03 

01 The clinic offers first class infrastructure 

02 Warm personal attention for the individual has highest priority 

03 The Pyramide Clinic lies close to the lake and the city centre of Zurich 

What is so special about a luxury private clinic? 

Along with extensive attention from top doctors, the clinics incorporate services and 

luxuries usually found in five-star hotels. As Beat Huber, CEO of Zurich’s lakefront clinic 

Pyramide am See points out, the clinics are also extremely discreet – no one knows you 

are there. Pyramide am See not only has private rooms, but also a penthouse suite for 

those who want more luxury or a place they can adapt to their cultural needs. About 

nine percent of patients are foreign, and the staff is trained in foreign languages and 

international cultural know-how. 

Each patient is assigned a guest-relations manager who contacts him or her before 

arrival, and looks out for the patient while he or she is in the clinic. The guest-relations 

manager also calls a couple of days after the patient has returned home to make sure 

everything has gone smoothly with the health insurance company and to see whether 

the patient needs any help at home. 

At the clinic hors d’oeuvres are served in the afternoon, staff uniforms are tailor made, 

and star cook and restaurateur Horst Petermann is being brought in to help redesign the 

food service. Pyramide is the founding member of Swiss Leading Hospitals, an 

organization designed to guarantee an extremely high level of medicine, service and 

comfort among its members. These are the places where the lines between hospital and 

resort are supposed to blur. 


23

Air Racing | The Rocket Racing League 

Granger Whitelaw, co-founder & CEO 

Rocket Racing, answers questions 

after the inaugural flight at Oshkosh 

24 Outlook 02/2008 

The Rocket Racing League participated in La Bella Macchina, January 2008, Jet Aviation Palm Beach 

The sport of racing rockets 

The Rocket Racing League will hold 

races using Velocity aircraft air- 

frames equipped with liquid propel- 

lant rocket engines. These Rocket 

Racers will navigate a virtual track 

in front of spectators and television 

audiences around the world. 

Rocket Racer aircraft will take off two at a 

time and race through a closed-circuit 

track in the sky. The five-mile track will be 

like a Formula One racetrack tilted at 90 

degrees, leaving the course between 150 

and 1500 feet above the ground. This 

means the planes will have many vertical 

ascents and descents. The route will be 

marked by virtual GPS gates that pilots will

Raceway in the sky - 

Simulation of pilot’s 

heads-up display 

see via 3D displays in their helmets. Spec- 

tators can view both the track and the ra- 

cing action on large projection screens at 

the live event, as well as at home on their 

televisions or computers. 

The idea for the Rocket Racing League 

came from Granger Whitelaw, a two-time 

member and co-owner of Indianapolis 

The first racer equipped with the Armadillo rocket engine ready for the first flight 

500 winning teams, and Peter Diamandis, 

the founder of the X-Prize foundation. 

Much of the business plan is modeled on 

the National Association for Stock Car 

Auto Racing (NASCAR), but the league is 

about much more than just going fast. “It’s 

about putting on a good show,” says 

Whitelaw, who is responsible for management 

and operations. “And it’s also about 

testing parts. A big part of what we do is 

developing new technologies.” 

The league showed its aircraft in January 

at La Bella Macchina, an event hosted 

every year in Palm Beach, Florida by 

Jet Aviation that showcases aircraft, fast 

cars and other luxury items. Then the 

first Rocket Racer exhibition flight was 

held in August 2008 at the EAA AirVenture 

in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The league 

will continue exhibition flights through the 

end of 2009, after which it plans to begin 

races for points and money. 

The Rocket Racing League will hold between 

six and 10 races at different locations 

across the country, with each race 

featuring up to 10 Rocket Racers. The 

planes will compete in a four- to six-lap, 

multiple-elimination heat format, and 

each racing event is expected to take 

about an hour and a half. At every event, 

points will be awarded to the top three finishers, 

and the league champion will be 

the pilot who earns the most overall points 

at the end of the regular season. At present, 

there are six teams registered with 

the league. 

First flights 

Jim Bridenstine’s team was the first to join 

the league. Bridenstine is a former Navy 


25


pilot, with over 300 carrier – arrested 

landings. He left the Navy about a year 

ago and is now in an MBA program. “The 

league seemed like a great opportunity to 

stay in the flying community and fly air- 

craft that are exciting and fast,” said Bri- 

denstine. “As a team owner the idea is to 

put together the pieces to fly airplanes in 

front of large audiences, and to generate 

enough revenue to both cover the costs 

and reinvest in technology that advances 

rocket science and space technology.” 

It was the Bridenstine aircraft that flew at 

the Experimental Aircraft Association’s 

(EAA) air show in Oshkosh. It was piloted 

by Rich Searfoss, a two-time NASA shut- 

tle commander. During the 10-minute 

flights, Searfoss performed various aero- 

batics using between 15 to 35 seconds of 

engine thrust. After take-offs that produ- 

26 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

ced flames bright enough to make crowds 

squint, he would turn off the engine and 

glide. Throughout the demonstrations 

there were bursts of thrust followed by 

more gliding. The engine produces a flame 

10 to 15 feet long and its roar is heard and 

felt miles away. “There was a tremendous 

crowd, with lots of excitement and lots of 

energy,” said Bridenstine. “Everyone wanted 

to see the vehicle.” 

The engine on the plane burned liquid 

oxygen and kerosene, providing between 

1,200 pounds and 1,500 pounds of thrust. 

That engine has since been replaced by a 

liquid oxygen-alcohol engine made by Armadillo 

Aerospace. The new engine has 

2,500 pounds or more of thrust. 

Test pilot Len Fox has successfully completed 

several test flights with the Arma- 

dillo engine. A second team, the Santa Fe 

team, was originally scheduled to use the 

alcohol-burning engine at Oshkosh to race 

against the Bridenstine team, but it did not 

receive Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) 

approval in time. The Rocket Racing 

League works closely with the FAA to obtain 

approvals for its aircraft, which are 

classed as experimental and need to be 

approved for exhibition racing. 

The airframe being used by the Santa Fe 

team is slightly different than the Bridenstine 

plane. Both are made by Velocity 

Aircraft, a company the league purchased 

earlier this year. The canard aircraft are 

very light and stable, and they glide well. 

The Velocity XL-5 employed by the Santa 

Fe team is wider, longer and heavier than 

the Velocity SE used by the Bridenstine 

people.

03 

01 The Armadillo engine is tested 

02 Evening test firing of the 

Bridenstine DKNY Rocket Racer 

03 Crew prepping for inaugural flight 

04 Bridenstine DKNY Rocket 

Racing Team 

05 The Armadillo engine installed 

on the rocket racer 

Teams can make minor modifications to 

the avionics and aerodynamics of the air- 

craft, but the league wants to keep the 

planes very consistent at the beginning. 

“We want it to be more about the pilot and 

team strategy than the vehicle or how 

much money a team has,” said Whitelaw. 

In the future, he expects teams to be given 

more options to customize their aircraft. 

He also expects the aircraft to become 

stronger, safer, lighter, faster and capable 

of longer fuel runs and more acrobatics. 

He does not expect the planes to fly more 

than 300 miles an hour, because pushing 

04 

05 

speed to the extreme would make the 

development and testing of many parts 

and technologies impractical. 

The business 

In addition to its role in promoting the 

development of rocket technology, the 

league is very much a business venture. 

Whitelaw admires the business plan used 

by NASCAR and Formula 1. 

The brand DKNY Men has become the 

first major sponsor and will support the 

Bridenstine team, as well as serve as 

clothing sponsor for the whole league. The 

fashion company wants to promote a line 

of men’s suits and hopes that associating 

itself with Rocket Racers will boost its 

image with men. The league is expecting 

more sponsors to follow. 

Those interested in starting a Rocket Racer 

team can fill in an online form. There 

are questions about the level of experience 

of the owner, the pilots and the team’s 

head of maintenance. At the end of the 

form, the prospective owner must also 

check a box about his or her available capital. 

Choices range from “less than $1M” 

to “more than $10M.” To start a team, owners 

must buy a $1.25 million kit from the 

league that includes the plane, an engine, 

avionics, training and the ground support 

equipment to refuel and move the aircraft. 

“It definitely takes capital to have a team,” 

says Marc Cumbow, owner of the Santa 

Fe crew. Aside from the initial fee, Cumbow 

has invested extensively in research 

and development. 

He is happy to see that the league has 

begun construction on the RRL Aerospace 

Business Park in his home state of New 

Mexico. The idea behind the business 

park in Las Cruces is to develop an industry 

cluster where teams and support companies 

can locate, similar to Charlotte, 

North Carolina for NASCAR and Indianapolis, 

Indiana for the Indy Racing League. 

The Rocket Racing League hopes this 

concentration of technology will benefit 


27


not only their league, but also the orbital 

and suborbital space industries. 

The future 

The Rocket Racing League has several US 

venues planned and would eventually like 

to be international. It is currently in discus- 

sion with seven countries. Television will 

be an important factor, and Whitelaw has 

said that the starting date for the first 

league races will depend on television 

contracts. 

Viewers both at home and at the races will 

be able to share the experience of the pilot 

through the five cameras placed on and in 

the plane, as well as cameras in blimps 

and helicopters nearby. They will also be 

able to “take part” in the races through a 

video game the league is developing. The 

game will be a multiplayer online game, 

28 Outlook 02/2008 

allowing players to become a character 

within it, through which they can interact 

with other players. It will also allow players 

to virtually race against pilots in real Rocket 

Racer League events. 

Whitelaw plans to hold a worldwide videogame 

contest and then fly the winner to 

one of the league’s races. The player will 

be put in a blacked-out tent and will start 

his or her virtual aircraft in real time with 

the actual Rocket Racers in the event. The 

player will have to maneuver in conditions, 

such as weather, that reflect those experienced 

by the pilots in the aircraft. Spectators 

and television viewers will be able 

see the virtual aircraft on the screen, together 

with the real aircraft. In what the 

founders refer to as “a 21st century sport 

for the 21st century sports fan.” 

01 02 

01 Bridenstine DKNY Rocket Racer 

rolling out on take-off 

02 The rocket racer takes to the sky 

on its maiden flight 

The brain behind 

Armadillo Aerospace 

In the 1990s, John Carmack and 

a group of friends formed id 

software, and Carmack led them 

in the development of “Doom,” 

“Quake” and several other videos 

games. These games came to 

define the first-person shooter 

genre. Today, though Carmack 

continues to program about 40 

hours a week, he also owns Arma- 

dillo Aerospace and designs 

rocket engines. 

He has a very experimental 

approach, launching many more 

rockets than most in his business. 

Along with designing engines that 

can be used for Rocket Racer 

aircraft, he is looking to create a 

vehicle that will take passengers 

into space.

NEW YORK BEVERLY HILLS LAS VEGAS BAL HARBOUR HONOLULU DALLAS CHICAGO 

PARIS GENEVA LONDON TOKYO OSAKA NAGOYA TAIPEI BEIJING HONG KONG 

WWW.HARRYWINSTON.COM 

©2008 Harry Winston 1-800-988-4110


01 Rocket racer going airborne on first flight 

02 Preflight testing on the rocket racer 

03 Team owner Jim Bridenstine & Granger 

Whitelaw, co-founder & CEO Rocket Racing 

League at Oshkosh 

First flights with a rocket racer 

Len Fox flew F/A-18s and A-4s for the Navy and has tested 54 

types of planes in his career. He recently flew Rocket Racer test 

flights with the new Armadillo liquid oxygen-alcohol engine. The 

August tests involved roughly 10-minute flights at altitudes ran- 

ging up to 8,000 feet and speeds of up to 219 miles per hour. Fox 

was able to go from zero to 105 miles per hour in 6.7 seconds. 

Mr. Fox, what was it like flying the Rocket Racers? 

Anytime a pilot has an opportunity to be involved in the develop- 

ment and first flight of a prototype, it is a challenging and reward- 

ing experience. The development stage challenges the imagina- 

tion in creating the test plan, procedures and contingencies in 

the event of emergency. On the first flight, the pilot must be ready 

to pick up all the cues that a plane is emitting and address those 

cues with flying skills if necessary. Final satisfaction comes in 

30 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

03 

executing the initial test series in accordance with the plans and 

procedures developed. This plane marched through its first seven 

flights. 

Was it significantly different than the other planes you have flown? 

The basics are the same in that the pilot is managing power and 

attitude to attain an altitude / airspeed combination. 

What skills are necessary to maneuver with short bursts of thrust? 

An indispensable skill will be the ability to manage the energy of 

the aircraft. That energy will be in form of thrust and airspeed and 

altitude. Pilot experience in the realm of gliding will be beneficial 

in maximizing energy management by using a glider pilot‘s eye to 

accurately assess a Rocket Racer‘s position relative to the available 

landing options.

Where do you think or hope there will be improvements in Rocket 

Racer technology? 

I think that using rockets in a popular sport will spur improve- 

ments in rocket design just as auto racing has spurred 

improvements in every aspect of the automobile. For rockets, the 

improvements will be in the area of simplicity, reliability and cost. 

The better designs that grow out of this effort will be the ones that 

make suborbital and orbital transportation commonplace. 

How safe are the planes? 

01 02 

The planes are safe if flown within the bounds of maximum allow- 

able speed, maximum allowable G and glide performance. The 

aircraft - engine combination comes with constraints that must 

be addressed with the appropriate procedures and checklists for 

all phases of operation. 

What special safety mechanisms are there? 

Special safety mechanisms include the onboard computer that 

controls the start, operation and shutdown of the engine. If it is 

working properly, the computer will detect a problem and secure 

the engine faster than the pilot can read a fault display and react. 

What do pilots need to learn in order to fly a Rocket Racer? 

The pilot of a vehicle like this has to be intimately familiar with the 

approach windows that will safely get the plane back to the run- 

01 Prepping the 

rocket racer 

02 Santa Fe Rocket 

Racing Team 

way when the rocket no longer fires due to fuel exhaustion or inflight 

malfunction. 

How did you know how to fly it if no one ”taught“ you? 

The best preparation came in the form of flying the propeller version 

of the Velocity XL with the power adjusted to take away any 

thrust or drag produced by the propeller. This gave insights into 

the glide performance of the basic airframe which proved very 

accurate in predicting the rocket conversion performance. 

What will be most challenging about the racetrack? 

The most challenging part of the virtual racecourse will be tailoring 

it to the performance of the rocket racer. It must not exceed 

the racer‘s ability to go vertical, or to roll, or to get back to the 

runway. If the course design is too ambitious, it will be impossible 

to fly. The biggest challenge, therefore, will be exploring the limits 

of what is possible. 

What will be the most enjoyable aspect of flying the course? 

Baseline enjoyment will come from a well-designed Rocket Racer. 

When an aircraft effortlessly responds to the pilot‘s will, it is a 

delight to fly. Beyond that, it will be using pilot skill in mastering 

the G, angle of bank, engine management, drag induced by control 

deflection and a dozen other fine details to run the course 

just a little bit faster than the competition. 


31

Innovation | Decision 

Making boats faster with carbon composites 

32 Outlook 02/2008 

The Decision company uses carbon 

composites to build things that 

need to be light and strong. It 

built the Alinghi boats that won 

the America’s Cup twice and will 

make large parts of the first 

airplane to fly around the world 

powered only by solar energy. 

Bertrand Cardis sailed around the world 

from September 1981 until May 1982 as 

part of Pierre Fehlmann’s crew on the 

Disque d’Or 3. As participants in the 

Whitbread Race, they went from Portsmouth 

to Cape Town, Cape Town to 

Auckland, Auckland to Mar de Plata in 

Argentina, and then back to Portsmouth. 

The team spent 136 days on the water, 

braved 50-knot winds and 15-meter 

waves, and finished in fourth place. 

Cardis went home to Switzerland and 

took a job at the Swiss Federal Institute of 

Technology in Lausanne, where he had 

written a master’s thesis on hydraulics. He 

also started a small business making 

surfboards. A year later Fehlmann suggested 

they build a boat that could win the 

1985/1986 Whitbread Race. Together 

with the Swiss Ocean Racing Club, the 

two men founded the company Decision, 

with Fehlmann in charge and Cardis as 

the main engineer. They began to build 

the 25-meter UBS Switzerland.

At the time, most boats that size were built 

of aluminum, but the two sailors decided 

to make the yacht out of composites. After 

Fehlmann used it to win the Whitbread 

Race, they disbanded the company. 

The potential of carbon materials had 

caught their attention, however, and a 

year later they moved to a shop on a hill 

above Lake Geneva and brought the 

company back to life. Cardis soon took 

over leadership of it. 

01 02 

Decision continued to hone its production 

skills with carbon composites and 

work closely with the Swiss Federal Institute 

of Technology. It built many boats, 

most of them prototypes. In 2001 the 

company constructed the Alinghi boat 

that went on to win the 2003 America’s 

Cup in Auckland. This was the first time a 

European team had triumphed in the 

prestigious competition since the inaugural 

race in 1851. It was also the first time 

a team had captured the Cup on its first 

01 The Alinghi 91 was built for the 

2007 America’s Cup races 

02 The Alinghi 91 finished the 

deciding match of the race just 

one second ahead of its competitor 

attempt. Decision built two more Alinghi 

boats for the 2007 America’s Cup which 

the team won again. 

In the final and deciding match of the 

2007 Cup, Alinghi was one second faster 

than its competitor. At this level of competition, 

the little things count, which is 

why Decision is always analyzing 

its processes and finding ways to make 

improvements. “There are thousands of 

small details,” says Cardis, “and if you 


33


do each a bit better, then you are one 

percent better.” 

The workshops on the hill 

The Decision facility is locked down at 

the moment. The next Alinghi is being 

built, and to maintain secrecy, visitors 

are only allowed access to the small 

office building. As soon as a car pulls 

through the entrance to the parking lot, 

two security guards question the visitor 

and lead the way to the office. 

Nevertheless, the grounds do not have 

the sterile, locked-down look of the topsecret 

buildings in espionage films. It is 

a hot day, and the doors to some of 

the halls are open. There is rock music 

coming from one of the buildings. Four 

mountain bikes stand outside the office, 

and inside there are a lot of personal 

decorations. Decision seems like the kind 

of place where people feel at home. 

One gets the feeling that the pictures of 

The next Alinghi 

The Alinghi in production for the 2009 

America’s Cup race will be a 90-foot 

multihull with a mast between 45 and 

50 meters in height. Boats in the recent 

America’s Cup competitions have been 

about 25-meters long, but the rules 

have changed, and boat builders are in 

new territory. Cardis has estimated that 

building this boat will take at least 

50,000 man hours. 

34 Outlook 02/2008 

successful projects that hang on the 

walls are there to bring back good memories, 

not to make an impression as 

evidence of past successes. The office 

has the utilitarian look that boat and 

airplane facilities often have – the look of 

a place that is designed to serve something 

people love. 

Cardis has the quiet air of a man 

whose work speaks for itself. It takes 

some prodding to get him to talk about 

what makes Decision special. “We are 

not afraid to start with a white piece 

of paper and think about how to do 

things,” he says. 

Decision has close ties to research, 

especially with the Swiss Federal Institute 

of Technology in Lausanne. Cardis 

and his team suggest research topics, 

question the results and apply new technologies 

as soon as they are available. 

They are usually building prototypes, and 

this involves new methods. “Sometimes 

trying new ideas is easy, sometimes it is 

very tough,” says Cardis. It is what he 

has been doing for 25 years and it is 

deeply embedded in the culture at 

Decision. 

The company has about 30 employees 

now. Cardis hires mostly boat builders, 

people with composite skills, carpenters 

and painters. Employees are generally 

people who work with their hands. The 

production process is manual. 

Boats leave the Decision shipyard by helicopter 

The construction 

The hull of the Alinghi boats is made of 

carbon, aluminum and synthetic fiber 

aramid. These elements are made into 

a kind of sandwich, with two thin fiberreinforced 

faces and a thick, light honeycomb 

core. The result is rigid, strong and 

incredibly light. 

To build the hull, Decision first makes 

a mold, into which it layers the superthin 

sheets of carbon fibers embedded

Any new construction in composite materials starts with the creation of a wooden plug 

in an epoxy resin. These layers are then 

exposed to a vacuum, which compresses 

the carbon mat, so that the fibers bind 

uniformly and there are as few air pockets 

as possible. This creates the outside 

“skin” of the Alinghi, which is only about 

3 mm thick. 

The honeycomb, made of aluminum and 

aramid, is put on top of that skin, and 

then another layer of the carbon fiber is 

placed on top of the honeycomb, creating 

the sandwich. The whole thing is baked 

in an oven for 15 hours, during which 

time the epoxy in the outside layers melts 

and binds the materials. 

This carbon composite is lighter and 

more rigid than steel or aluminum. 

Unlike the metals, however, the material 

cannot carry an equal load in all 

directions. It is strong in the direction 

of the long carbon fibers and weak at 

a 90-degree angle to the fibers. This 

makes it very important to know exactly 

where the strain on a structure will be. 

Once that is known, weight can be saved 

by providing extra strength only where it 

is needed. 

A wide range of applications 

Decision has made many sailboats using 

processes similar to those used for the 

Alinghis, including the 10 boats in its 

Decision 35 series. Cardis and the Swiss 

Multihull Owners Association came up 


35


with the idea for the series when they 

saw that boats being made for the races 

on Lake Geneva were becoming more 

and more expensive. They were afraid 

the high costs would kill off competition. 

The Decision 35 catamarans were made 

easier to sail, lighter and a little smaller 

than many previous boats in order to 

keep the price down. The company also 

helped organize the Julius Baer challenge, 

a regatta in which every team 

36 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

03 

sails a Decision 35. With all participants 

in the same boat, sailing skills became 

the deciding factor. 

The company has also made a solarpowered 

boat that is used as a passenger 

ferry across the lake of Geneva and the 

floats for the Hydroptere, a trimaran that 

lifts up off the water at high speeds, leaving 

only its hydrofoils in the water. Cardis 

has also applied the composite technology 

01 Constructing carbon-fiber beams 

for the trimaran Groupame 

02 The wooden plug for the roof of a 

GP 42 Airis sailboat 

03 The Open 60 Solune in the final 

days before delivery 

to build a structure to hide telecom antennas 

near the top of Switzerland’s 2500meter 

Saentis mountain, and to create a 

nine-meter adjustable skylight with a diaphram 

that mimics the photo stop in a 

camera lens. 

One of the current highlights for Cardis 

and his team is the construction of the 

Solar Impulse prototype. Solar Impulse 

will be an airplane used by Bertrand

Piccard and Andre Borschberg to fly 

around the world powered only by solar 

energy. Due to limits in solar-cell technology 

and battery capacity, it is important 

that the plane be as light as possible. 

Unlike the Alinghi hulls, in which the outer 

layers of the composite sandwich are 

made of several sheets of carbon fibers, 

the outer layers of the material used 

to build Solar Impulse are made of a 

single sheet of more densely interwoven 

fibers. With this single sheet, it becomes 

difficult to avoid folding, which would 

compromise the structure. “We are using 

the same technologies,” says Cardis, “but 

there are different ways of doing it and 

different ways of improving it. It is very 

challenging.” 

01 02 

01 Solune sailing 

02 Bertrand Cardis leads the team at 

Decision 

The use of composites is rapidly gaining 

popularity. Cardis has seen carbon 

become more expensive in recent years 

as big companies have begun to show 

more interest in the materials. Because 

vehicles made from carbon are much 

lighter than those made of aluminum 

or steel, there is less power needed to 

drive them. This is significant in a time of 

rising fuel costs and attempts to reduce 

carbon-dioxide emissions. 

At present, production involving composites 

is often manual. “One of the next big 

developments in composites will be the 

industrialization of these processes,” says 

Cardis. In late fall, Decision will move 

down the hill and closer to the Swiss 

A lifetime of working 

with water and energy 

Bertrand Cardis not only sailed 

around the world, he also 

represented Switzerland in the 

1984 Olympics. He does not 

have as much time to be out on 

the water as he used to, but he 

still sails a Decision 35 on Lake 

Geneva. His experience as a 

sailor has served him well as a 

ship builder. “Sailing gives you a 

feeling for how the load is going 

into the boat,” he explains. 

“When you start to build a boat, 

you can bring in your sailing 

skills to improve the structure.” 

A native of Lausanne, Cardis 

started sailing on Lake Geneva 

with his father and grandfather 

when he was six years old. He 

later studied mechanical 

engineering at the Swiss Federal 

Institute of Technology, where 

he focused on hydraulics and 

energy for his master’s thesis. 

Cardis is 51 years old and the 

father of three sons. 

Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. 

There, along with continuing its ties 

to research and constructing prototypes, 

Decision will become part of this new 

industrialization. 


37

Resort | Terravista 

Bringing golf, luxury and charter 

services to a beach paradise in Brazil 

The Terravista resort is on the north- 

east coast of Brazil, with the ocean 

on one side and Atlantic rainforest 

on the other. It is on the Discovery 

Coast, in Porto Seguro, where Captain 

Pedro Alvares Cabral is believed 

to have been the first European to 

arrive in Brazil. He reached land in 

38 Outlook 02/2008 

the year 1500, just after Easter, with 

22 boats holding 1,350 men. 

Porto Seguro became the first capital 

of Brazil, before that role was transferred 

to Salvador and then Rio de Janeiro. It was 

the busiest port in Portugal’s American 

colonies from 1500 into the early 1800s, 

A golfer putts on the green at hole Nr. 14 of the Terravista golf course 

and then, somewhere along the way, it became 

forgotten. The waters of the port were 

not deep enough for large ships, and the 

action moved down the coast to other harbors. 

When Michael Rumpf Gail visited Porto 

Seguro in 1987, the trip from São Paulo

01 A house at Terravista 

02 Michael Gail with Prince Andrew, Duke of York and 

Mr. Johan Eliasch at the Terravista golf course clubhouse 

03 Hotel Swimming Pool at Terravista 

04 The view from hole Nr. 14 of the Terravista golf course 

was an adventure. It was done in Embraer 

Bandeirante airplanes, with three stops. 

There were few paved roads, and elec- 

tricity was scarce and prone to blacking 

out. He was put off by the amount of dirt 

and trash on the local ferry boat, yet at 

the same time, there was something that 

caught his attention. There was a special 

feeling in the air. 

Gail’s first feelings grew into a conviction 

that the area was one of the nicest in 

04 

the world, and that tourists would love it. 

Over time that sentiment grew stronger, 

and together with partners, he eventually 

decided to build Brazil’s first true luxury 

resort. Today, the Terravista resort has 

a Club Med hotel, luxury condominiums 

and a top-rated golf course. 

The resort also has its own airport, which 

is home to Gail’s air taxi company, Tropic 

Air. You can get from Terravista to São 

Paulo in an hour and a half. Tropic Air can 

01 02 

03 

also take you from the international airport 

in Porto Seguro to some of the more isolated 

hotels in the region. 

Jet Aviation recently partnered with Gail 

to offer aircraft charter and management 

services in Brazil and Latin America. Gail 

has had a connection to Jet Aviation for 

much of his life. In his teenage years, he 

was at a Swiss boarding school with company 

founder Carl Hirschmann’s two sons, 

Carl Jr. and Thomas. Years later, while 


39


running an air taxi service in Germany, he 

had his planes maintained at Jet Aviation. 

When it came to joining forces with a relia- 

ble, high-quality partner, it was clear to 

him that Jet Aviation was the first choice. 

The road to Brazil 

For much of Gail’s life, running a resort 

and air taxi company in the northeast of 

Brazil would have seemed an unlikely 

venture. He was born in Germany to a 

family that had begun a cigar company in 

1812 and then added a ceramics business 

in 1891. He was sent to a prestigious boar- 

ding school in the small Swiss town 

of Zuoz, then went to the University of 

St. Gallen and completed a PhD in busi- 

ness administration. 

He had started a real estate business 

during his studies, and when he gradua- 

ted, he was happy in Switzerland and 

intended to stay there. His father, however, 

sent him to Brazil to look after the family 

ceramics company’s new subsidiary. 

40 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

Though Gail did not want to go, he obeyed 

his father’s wishes. When his father retired 

in 1980 and it was time for him to come 

back to Europe and lead the company, he 

did not want to come back. 

He brought a Brazilian fiancée back to 

Europe, and they married and had children. 

At first they lived in Switzerland and 

he commuted to the company headquarters 

in Germany. Ceramics was a hard 

business by then, however, and he had to 

work a lot of hours. The commute was 

too much, and after two years, he moved 

to Germany. 

While living in Switzerland and Germany, 

he went back to Brazil for vacations twice 

a year. His wife had her family there, and 

he still had a beach house. He wanted 

his children to know the country. While 

at boarding school in Zuoz, he had 

marveled at the way many of the other 

students, who had parents of different 

nationalities, were effortlessly fluent in 

two languages. He decided to raise his 

children bilingual, so he and his wife 

spoke Portuguese at home. He knew, 

however, that as kids grow up they often 

rebel at the idea of speaking a foreign 

language at home. He thought this could 

be avoided if his children experienced 

Brazil and became attached to it. 

His beach house was in Juquei, on the 

northern coast of São Paulo, where it 

rained a lot. After a few years, repeatedly 

spending vacations in the rain became 

tedious, and he started to look for an 

ideal spot to build a new beach house. 

He was extremely systematic. He took his 

family, a thermometer and a barometer, 

and traveled from Fortaleza to Rio de 

Janeiro checking the climate. In the end, 

he chose to buy land in the town of 

Arraial da Ajuda, in the municipality of 

Porto Seguro. 

01 The facade of an office 

building covered with 

“KeraGail” tiles 

02 Gail wall tiles are produced 

with unique technology 

As he was building his house, he began to 

like the place more and more. He had the

01 Michael Gail with his wife Elanne 

at his summer house at Terravista 

02 Michael Gail with his daughter 

Nathalie and his son Christian in 

St. Moritz, Switzerland 

03 Michael Gail at age three, skiing 

with his parents in Zermatt, 

Switzerland 

feeling that if the area appealed to him 

as much as other place he had been in 

the world – and he had been all around 

the world – other people would like it too. 

This is where the idea of building a resort 

first began. At this point, however, he was 

still living in Germany, running the family 

ceramics business. 

A few years later, things changed. In 1992, 

the Gail Company entered a joint venture 

with the Japanese company Inax. Two 

years later, Inax took over the Gail Company. 

For the first time, Michael Gail was free to go 

wherever he wanted. And he chose Brazil. 

The South American country was his first 

choice primarily because of the people, 

and also because it offered good opportunities 

and a pleasant climate. As luck 

would have it, the only Gail subsidiary the 

01 02 03 

The Gail family businesses 

In 1812, Michael Gail’s great-great grandfather started a cigar business in the German 

town of Giessen. He and his family had moved there because his hometown of Dillenburg 

was under Napoleonic rule, which made business for his mother’s grocery store difficult. 

In 1891 the company added a business making bricks and earthenware. The company 

soon began to innovate with tiles, especially tiles for architecture. They supplied many 

of the Art Nouveau buildings under construction at the beginning of the 20th century. 

The two world wars were a hard time for the company, and both of the company’s 

production facilities were bombed towards the end of the Second World War. The family 

rebuilt as soon as possible, focusing on modernization and started again. The company 

increased its focus on foreign markets. The ceramics business picked up and then 

boomed. Cigars, however, went out of style in the 1950s and 1960s, and the family gave 

up its cigar business. 

When Michael Rumpf Gail took over the ceramics company in 1982, it had become 

hard to have such a business in central Europe, where wages were high and the business 

climate could be inflexible. Gail entered a joint venture with the Japanese company Inax, 

which first took a minority stake, then took over all of the company except the Brazilian 

subsidiary in 1994. The Gail family kept the Brazilian business, with Michael Gail going 

to Brazil to head the company. 

Gail’s son has just finished studying business administration in the US and will return to 

Brazil. He is interested in continuing the tradition of the family ceramics business. 

Terravista has a future in the family as well. Gail’s daughter has finished her studies in 

design and business administration and is interested in working at the resort. 

Outlook 02/2008 41


01 The restaurant at the 

Terravista driving range 

02 A Terravista condominium at 

hole 10 of the golf course 

Japanese company had not wanted was 

the Brazilian company. The Japanese had 

thought it was very complicated to have 

a company in Brazil and said they did 

not know how to deal with Brazilians. So 

Michael Gail moved to Brazil to head the 

company. 

Terravista 

The same year Gail arrived in Brazil, he 

and a partner founded Terravista and 

hired Tom Krause of Krause Bohne architects, 

who have designed resorts in over 

25 countries. The architect told them 

they should have a golf course, so they 

contacted star golf course architect Dan 

Blankenship and gave him free reign. 

The focus at Terravista is on the course 

Blankenship designed. “This isn’t just a 

42 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

place with a golf course squeezed in 

the middle of residences,” he says. “We 

wanted to build the best course we could.” 

Nine of the 18 holes are in a forest environment, 

while the other nine are by the 

ocean, on top of tall cliffs that tower over 

the beach. 

Gail travels to the world’s top 100 golf 

courses, plays a round of golf, and takes a 

look at what it is that they do differently. 

Then he takes the ideas home. On a hot 

day in the Bahamas, staff at a renowned 

golf course passed out cold towels soaked 

in an essence of peppermint. The effect 

was so refreshing that Gail immediately 

bought peppermint oil and created the 

luxury on his course as well. Now other 

courses in Brazil are doing it too. 

In addition to golf, visitors to the resort can 

enjoy the natural beauty of both the ocean 

and the forest. The resort covers an area of 

1,200 hectares and has two and a half kilometers 

of beach. There is currently one 

hotel, and construction on two more very 

high-end hotels will begin at the end of the 

year. There are also plans for a village with 

shopping and dining opportunities, as well 

as a Discovery Museum to house pottery 

shards that have been found in the area. 

Tropic Air 

Terravista’s distance from the large metropolises 

of Brazil makes it safe and peaceful. 

It also allowed Gail to expand on one of 

his primary interests. As a young boy, he 

had built model airplanes. At university, 

he thought about ending his studies and 

becoming a Swissair pilot, but his parents

01 Terravista’s private airport has 

a 1500-meter runway 

02 Michael Gail as captain of a 

Tropic Air jet 

03 The FBO at Terravista Airport 

were not supportive of the idea. At about 

26, when he had finished university and 

had money of his own, he learned to fly. 

From there he continued on to get his Air- 

line Transport Pilot rating. 

Gail flew in his free time, but that was 

never quite enough for him. In Germany 

he took over a Piper dealership together 

with a friend. They had Piper Cheyenne 

demonstration aircraft for the business, 

and these needed to be flown regularly, so 

he began an air taxi business. He had the 

maintenance done at Jet Aviation Kassel. 

When it came time to move to Brazil, he 

flew one of the Cheyenne airplanes to his 

new home. Once again, however, the bit 

of flying that he could do in his free time 

was not enough. He wanted flying to play 

a larger role in his life. In Puerto Seguro 

he had seen that tourists needed a way 

to get from the main airport to isolated 

hotels. He also wanted to make it as easy 

as possible to get to Terravista, where he 

had already built a runway. 

He founded the Tropic Air air taxi company, 

which has a helicopter and small planes in 

01 02 

03 

Porto Seguro, as well as two jets in São 

Paulo. He will be adding two new jets, a 

Cessna Citation XLS+ and an Embraer Phenom 

300, to the fleet in Sao Paulo. Sometimes 

he flies the planes himself. 

In the future, he hopes to expand his cooperation 

with Jet Aviation. Brazil has one 

of the largest business jet fleets in the 

world, and that fleet is growing rapidly. “All 

of these planes will need maintenance, 

administration and human resources,” 

says Gail. “This is the right time in Brazil. 

The market is ready.” 


43

Candy | Ricola 

Ricola’s herbs are organically grown in the Swiss countryside 

44 Outlook 02/2008 

The traditional Swiss herb candy 

The Ricola company began making 

its 13-herb candy almost 70 years 

ago. Today the can-dies are sold 

around the world, and the familyowned 

business remains entirely 

Swiss. 

During a meeting of parliament, former 

Indonesian president Abdurraham Wahid 

asked for a Ricola cough drop. The event 

was reported in the Swiss press, where it 

was also mentioned that the Queen of 

England is believed to carry Ricola in her 

purse. The company cannot confirm this 

rumor, but it does point out that Robbie 

Williams and Madonna use Ricola, and 

that Justin Timberlake’s people have 

made inquiries about the sweets.

Ricola makes about 25 different herbal 

products, which it exports to over 50 

countries. The original Ricola candy has 

13 herbs and was developed by Emil 

Richterich, a pastry chef in the small 

town of Laufen, Switzerland. When 

Richterich’s son Hanspeter was born in 

1930, it was clear that the profits from 

the bakery were not enough to support 

a family, so Richterich began to make 

candy. The new business was not 

successful during the time before the 

Second World War, but when food was 

rationed during the war, people began 

to buy the brown cubes so that they 

would not have to use their food coupons 

for sugar. In the early 1960s, the company 

decided to focus exclusively on 

two of its sweets, one of which was 

the herbal candy. Emil and Hanspeter 

cycled from store to store with a case of 

their samples, and the product was well 

received. In 1967 the company built a 

new factory exclusively for the production 

of herbal candies. 

Today, every single herbal candy still 

comes from Laufen. The town is a 

former Roman settlement that achieved 

city status in 1295. It now has just over 

5000 people, and 300 of them work 

for Ricola, making the company the 

second-largest employer in town. All 

shares in Ricola belong to the Richterich 

family, and Felix Richterich, grandson of 

the founder, is chairman of the board. 

Gaining popularity 

The original candies are brown and square 

– sort of chunky, more or less cubes with 

wavy lines on top. They do not all have the 

same shape. “The candies were square 

because the others at the time were round,” 

says Ricola CEO Adrian Kohler. “And also 

because this was an easy shape for the 

machines.” 

The candies became a part of life in 

Switzerland. Many Swiss remember being 

given Ricola by their grandmother. She 

would pull a candy with the yellow Ricola 

wrapper from her purse, or go to the 

cupboard and get the yellow tin 

containing a loose jumble of the brown 

cubes. The taste of Ricola was familiar 

and comforting. 

It did not take long for the sweets to 

catch on in other countries as well. After 

the Second World War, Italians came 

to Switzerland to buy gasoline, and on 

the same trip they picked up cigarettes, 

Knorr bouillon cubes, and Ricola candies. 

Responding to the interest, Ricola began 

to export to Italy. 

When Ricola tried to establish contacts 

to export to Germany in the 1960s, Richterich 

was told that the awkwardly shaped 

sweets were not marketable. Eventually 

a Swiss man, who headed a German 

company, felt sorry for Ricola and said he 

would try to sell 100,000 packages in a 

year. The packages sold in one month, 

Blending 13 herbs 

for the original 

candy 


45


and Ricola was on its way to widespread 

popularity in Germany. 

Ricola’s move into the US was not as imme- 

diately successful. The company found 

that US consumers were not very receptive 

to the idea of herbs in candy. After conducting 

a marketing study, executives realized 

that they should focus on the effect of the 

candies – the way they helped with irritated 

throats, coughs and other cold symptoms. 

46 Outlook 02/2008 

01 

02 

01 Ricola’s herbs are harvested when they have 

gained their highest possible level of active 

ingredients 

02 Ricola is one of the most modern 

manufacturers of drops and lozenges 

Ricola began referring to its product as a 

cough drop, and its popularity jumped. 

The company also boosted brand recognition 

through television commercials. “We 

decided to put ads on CNN,” explains Kohler. 

“Then the Gulf War broke out and everyone 

watched CNN, so we got a lot of publicity.” 

In the ads the company chose to 

focus on “Swissness.” The TV spots showed 

yodeling, mountains and alphorns. 

“People were fascinated by these new 

things,” says Kohler. 

Ricola is now well-established in the US. 

“When I first joined the company and traveled 

to the US in 1987,” says Kohler, 

“people didn’t know Ricola. Now when I tell 

immigration officials I am on business for 

Ricola, they sometimes pull a box of cough 

drops out of their pocket and sing “Riiiiico-laaaa.”

Different countries, 

different flavors 

Germans love Ricola’s sage 

flavored cough drops. Asian 

countries, on the other hand, 

prefer strong fruity flavors. In the 

United States, customers would 

doubt the effectiveness of a 

cough drop that tasted too fruity. 

With its international distribution, 

Ricola pays close attention to 

taste in various countries. Its 

original recipe with the 13 herbs 

was adjusted for the United 

States, where three of the herbs 

were not known. Echinacea, on 

the other hand, is a well known 

herb there added to some of the 

Ricola cough drops. 

The company also pays attention 

to regulations. Ricola describes 

its candies as one of the first 

functional foods, and the product 

often straddles the line between 

food and medicine, which can 

make things complicated. The 

company has adapted to an 

increase in the regulation of 

supplements and additives by 

making sure its production facility 

meets both food and pharmaceutical 

standards, so it can offer 

both cough drops and herbal 

candies. 

01 02 

03 

The herbs 

The company now exports almost 90% of 

its products. After Switzerland, the highest 

per capita consumption is in Singapore 

and Hong Kong. Different flavors are preferred 

in different countries, but all around 

the world, it is the herbs that make Ricola 

special. 

The original candy contains elder, horehound, 

mallow, peppermint, sage, thyme, 

cowslip, burnet, yarrow, marshmallow, 

lady‘s mantle, speedwell and plantain. The 

herbs all come from Switzerland, where 

Ricola buys from about 200 farmers. The 

farmers follow organic guidelines, and Ricola 

chooses farms away from major roads 

and urban agglomerations. 

Ricola researches how to grow herbs 

with the best taste and the highest 

concentration of essential oils and other 

flavors. The company looks at the climate 

and soil conditions most conducive to 

those qualities and it tries to identify the 

best time to harvest an herb. Sometimes a 

plant is gathered before it blooms, other 

times after 50% or 70% of the bloom has 

appeared. 

01 Company founder 

Emil Richterich 

02 Emil Richterich’s 

grandson Felix is 

Ricola’s chairman 

03 Adrian Kohler, 

CEO Ricola 

Ricola has about 400 employees, most of 

whom work in the town of Laufen 

The company has five herb gardens 

in Switzerland that serve as a place for 

visitors to become familiar with herbs. The 

garden closest to Ricola headquarters is 

at the foot of the Jura mountains. In the 

front, near the entrance, there is a bed 

displaying the 13 herbs that go into the 

original candy. Further back there are 

more beds with herbs and fruit such as 

lemon balm, echinacea, cranberries and 

currants. Each garden has all the herbs 

and fruits that go into Ricola’s various 

candies, so that visitors can see the whole 

plant and get a feel for where various 

tastes really come from. 


47


A long bed contains about 30 different 

mint species. One of the things the 

garden emphasizes is the diversity 

within a given herb. Mint is not just 

mint. Visitors can crush a leaf and smell 

that there really are differences between 

Moroccan Mint, Banana Mint and Choc- 

olate Mint. 

Where it all comes from 

Once the farmers that supply Ricola have 

harvested their herbs, the plants are dried 

as quickly as possible to preserve essen- 

tial oils. The flavors are then extracted 

when the candies are made. Outside the 

48 Outlook 02/2008 

production facility in Laufen, there is a big 

red container heaped with wet herbs that 

have been through the extraction process. 

Much of this mass is put into animal feed. 

This facility was built two years ago, and it 

still looks shiny and new. The steam rising 

above it has a sweet smell, probably sugar 

mixed with an herbal scent. The scent 

would depend on what candy is being 

made, and on a day in early July, it smells 

like it might be lemon balm. 

The factory is located just outside Laufen‘s 

ancient city center, about a four-minute 

01 02 

03 

01 Marketing building, Laufen 

02 Packaging and distribution 

building Ricola Europe, 

Mulhouse-Brunstatt 

03 The original production building 

also served as a home and 

office for the Richterich family 

drive from the company’s headquarters. 

Ricola’s management building was for- 

merly an auxiliary Catholic church up until 

1918. It was then converted to a garage, 

and afterwards, in 1950, it began to serve 

as a production facility, business office 

and living space for the Richterich family. 

Once Ricola’s facilities had expanded, the 

building was used exclusively as office 

space. It was subsequently renovated by 

Herzog & de Meuron, the architects who 

designed the Tate Modern in London, the 

M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco, 

and the Beijing National Stadium.

The Richterich family had known Herzog 

& de Meuron before they were famous 

and had commissioned them to build 

a warehouse in Laufen in 1987 and then a 

packaging and distribution plant across 

the border in France in 1993. These 

structures became two of the most visited 

industrial buildings in Europe and helped 

to launch the architects’ international 

careers. Ricola recently had them design 

another building, a glass marketing 

facility across from the management buil- 

ding. 

Ricola’s administration buildings are 

filled with artwork. The company, and 

the Emil und Rosa Richterich-Beck 

Foundation that it subsidizes, support 

Swiss art. They do so by buying artwork, 

offering an annual prize for art history, 

and supporting galleries and art projects. 

When the company buys a piece of art, 

it buys books about the artist and 

puts them in a library accessible to 

employees. Together with the foundation 

the company also supports various 

charitable causes. Emil Richterich 

believed that a company had a responsibility 

to society, and Ricola continues to 

take this responsibility seriously. 

This attitude can be seen in the way the 

company treats its employees. It offers 

good benefits and profit sharing, and 

it regularly organizes events for its staff. 

Ricola has also committed to keeping 

its business in Laufen, and recently 

purchased additional land next to its 

production facility. Keramik Laufen, 

Ricola’s next-door neighbor at this site 

and the largest employer in town, was 

purchased by a Spanish company in 

1999. The Richterich family not only 

kept Ricola Swiss, but has also kept 

Ricola independent of banks and outside 

shareholders. This allows the family 

to make its own choices and focus on 

long-term business. 

Ricola is competing in an international, 

rapidly consolidating market. One of the 

ways the company remains competitive is 

by continually increasing its product 

offering. The company now sells teas and 

has increased its candy selection to 

include flavors such as cranberry, cherry 

and verbena. The combination of new 

tastes and established recipes, as well 

as a reputation for quality, has kept the 

company successful. 

In Switzerland customers buy the teas 

and appreciate the new flavors. The 

original recipe, however, remains the 

most popular. It is the chunky brown cube 

that carries the taste of home. 

Most Swiss grew up 

with the herb candy 

in the yellow wrapper 

Selling Swissness 

Part of Ricola’s success can be attributed 

to an effective advertising campaign. 

At the beginning, the focus was strongly 

on Swissness. There were alphorns, 

mountain fields, and happy cows chewing 

brilliant green grass. This served to 

associate the candy and its herbs with a 

traditional and natural environment. 

The company also put humor into its ads. 

There was one with an unlikely group of 

rappers turning to Ricola. There was also 

an alpine herb picker who was constantly 

being deterred from getting the 13th herb 

he needed, whether by a hungry goat or 

an aggressive hunter. 

In 1998 the company started its “Who 

invented it?” campaign. In these spots, a 

Swiss comedian, Erich Vock, pops up in 

countries such as Finland, Australia and 

China to point out that the beloved cough 

drops are not local, but rather made in 

Switzerland. The message is clear: 

Switzerland represents quality, and Ricola 

is very Swiss. 


49

Jet Aviation | Inside 

Jet Aviation puts its experience 

to work during the Olympics 

Jet Aviation pleased customers and impressed authorities as its international team 

handled 300 aircraft at the Olympic Games in Beijing. As the first global aviation service 

provider to open an FBO in China, the company was able to tap the vast capabilities 

it has accumulated over its 40-year history and fly in specialists from its operations 

around the world. Twenty-three skilled ramp handlers were brought in from US facilities, 

five maintenance experts came from the US, Asia and Australia and managers 

arrived from Europe and the US. 

50 Outlook 02/2008 

01 02 

01 Fireworks over the National Stadium 

during the closing ceremony for the 

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games 

02 Usain Bolt breaks the world record to 

win the men’s 100m Olympic gold 

Peak traffic in Beijing occurred on August 

7 and 25, with 121 arrivals and 67 

departures on the 7th. On the night of 

August 8, there were so many business 

jets on the ramps – a sight never before 

seen at the Beijing airport – that people 

flocked to have a look. Jet Aviation did 

more maintenance than expected. The 

staff was able to replace a windshield 

and take care of problems with landing 

gear, APU, avionics and oxygen systems. 

These services allowed aircraft operators 

to continue with their travel plans without 

lengthy maintenance delays.

“Customers were impressed we made 

the effort to support them during the 

Olympics,” said John Langevin, vice 

president and general manager of 

Jet Aviation’s Teterboro FBO. “We have 

shown that Jet Aviation is dedicated to 

serving customers all over the world, and 

several large flight departments gave me 

personal commitments on the spot.” 

Jet Aviation offered the maintenance 

and ramp services together with its 

Beijing-based partner, Deer Air. For the 

Olympic Games, the two companies 

worked together with Capital Jet, a subsidiary 

of Capital Airport Holdings, which 

took care of passenger handling. 

To guarantee top maintenance services, 

the companies also worked closely with 

aircraft manufacturers. Jet Aviation 

managers flew to China ahead of the 

games and met with OEM representatives. 

Gulfstream, Bombardier and Dassault 

had representatives present at the 

FBO during the games, and Honeywell 

placed both a representative and a parts 

store on-site. The global logistics company 

Fiege worked with Jet Aviation 

throughout the operation to ensure an 

efficient supply chain. “Our success in 

China was a team effort,” said Alexander 

Schlag, general manager of Jet Aviation 

Beijing. “We had close to 40 people here 

during the Olympic Games, representing 

eight nationalities. We were supported by 

an equally large group of Jet Aviation personnel 

in Europe, Singapore and the USA, 

and we had local partners whose cooperation 

was vital to our operations.”During 

the Olympics, Jet Aviation’s services 

were recognized and appreciated by the 

local authorities. “Our performance has 

positioned us well with Chinese authorities,” 

said Jet Aviation CEO Peter 

Edwards. “They have developed confi- 

Beijing’s FBO with full ramp 

during the Olympics 

dence in Jet Aviation.” By fall of 2008, 

Jet Aviation’s Beijing FBO is expected to 

be fully operational, with a 6,000 sq m 

(64,560 sq ft) hangar to follow at the 

beginning of 2009. 

“The Chinese business-aviation market 

is growing rapidly,” said Edwards, “and 

we have an important role in the development 

of its service infrastructure. Our 

ability to provide services will accelerate 

the growth of the industry.” 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation Beijing 

Tel. +86 10 6459 2133 

Fax +86 10 6459 2123 


51


Jet Aviation Moscow Vnukovo continues to strengthen and grow 

In the short time since Jet Aviation 

was awarded EASA approval for its 

Moscow operations this summer it has 

received agreements to provide line 

maintenance services for Bombardier 

Global Express XRS and 5000 and Challenger 

604 and 605 as well as Gulfstream 

GIV, G450, GV and G550 aircraft. The 

company is also working closely with other 

aircraft manufacturers to establish maintenance 

approvals in the near future. 

52 Outlook 02/2008 

Jet Aviation is the first global independent 

business aviation services company 

based in the growing Russian market. 

By early 2009, the company will move 

to a state-of-the-art 3,300 sq m (35,500 

sq ft) hangar. Carsten Fimm, station manager, 

says, “We have also developed 

customer relations elsewhere in Russia 

and offer AOG support to assist clients 

in Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and 

St Petersburg.” 

Vnukovo International Airport serves 

some 35,000 VIP passengers a year. It 

is the nearest airfield to Moscow city 

center, which is only 28km away. 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation Moscow Vnukovo 

Tel. +7 495 662 1350 

Fax +7 495 662 1351 

jvko@jetaviation.ru

Shop and office building complete Basel’s wide body hangar 

Since the inauguration on May 16, 2008, 

all shop and office building construction 

adjacent to the new wide body hangar at 

Jet Aviation Basel has now been completed. 

This includes sheet metal, composite, 

avionics and component repair shops as 

well as a part of the company’s engineering 

and interior design departments, 

administrative and client offices. 

In the past few weeks, the various departments 

moved into their new facilities, 

making the new wide body hangar fully 

operational. They will be assisting the 

different product lines associated with 

narrow and wide body aircraft completions 

projects. 

“With the new hangar we are now able to 

integrate all of our narrow and wide body 

completions services in one location,” 

says André Wall, Jet Aviation’s COO for 

EMEA & Asia. “Having all services 

together in one building makes the daily 

workflow and processes much more efficient,” 

Wall adds. 

Contact : 

Jet Aviation Basel 

Tel. +41 58 158 4111 

Fax +41 58 158 4004 

jbsl@jetaviation.ch 


53


54 Outlook 02/2008 

Basel gears up to help 

Falcon customers 

Earlier this year Jet Aviation Basel took 

delivery of Europe’s only dummy landing 

gear for Dassault’s Falcon 50/900/2000 

series aircraft. The Basel facility used 

the gear for the first time in July. Michael 

Sattler, senior vice president maintenance 

Basel, says, “our on-site engineers 

came up with the idea after several of our 

clients requested a new paint job at the 

same time as their 2C checks.” 

Ordinarily various jobs cannot be per- 

formed simultaneously, but because the 

dummy gear has wheels, engineers can 

Hawker 850 XP landing gear fitting repaired for the second time ever 

When a client of Jet Aviation Dusseldorf 

landed with its Hawker 850 XP in icy 

conditions early in the year, the aircraft 

almost slid off the landing strip. Shortly 

after the incident, the aircraft was flown 

back to Dusseldorf for inspection and repair. 

The right-hand flap assy as well as 

the wing fitting to the fuselage and airbrake 

needed to be replaced. At the same 

time the engine and landing gear were inspected 

and overhauled. 

During the inspection, the team of technicians 

discovered that the right-hand 

landing gear attachment fitting had been 

broken, probably caused by the forces 

during the landing. This was an extremely 

unusual procedure since the fitting is an 

integral part of the wing structure. One of 

the parts from the core of the wing structure 

needed to be rebuilt, a procedure 

only performed once before on a Hawker 

850 XP aircraft. 

“Our most experienced Hawker specialists 

were assigned to this complex project 

and managed it successfully in four and a 

half months,” says Johannes Turzer, senior 

vice president and general manager 

Jet Aviation Dusseldorf. 

move the jet around, allowing them access 

to the aircraft and moving it in and 

out of hangars. 

Sattler adds, “Jet Aviation Basel is the 

only facility in Europe that has a dummy 

gear for the Falcon product line. With 

it, there is less down time, as we can 

perform several tasks at once, such as 

functional checks or engine run-ups.” In 

summary, the aircraft are easily moveable 

and do not block hangar space. 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation Basel 

Tel. +41 58 158 4111 

Fax +41 58 158 4004 

jbsl@jetaviation.ch 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation Dusseldorf 

Tel. +49 211 454 970 

Fax +49 211 454 3423 

jdus@jetaviation.de

Largest engineering and 

avionics project on King 

Air 350C 

Jet Aviation Zurich recently completed its 

largest engineering and avionics project 

on a King Air 350C. It was the first of 

its kind to be performed in Europe. The 

six-month project included an extensive 

avionics installation with state-of-the-art 

systems. 

The client brought the 14-year old King 

Air 350C aircraft, which is used for Swiss 

topography mapping, to Jet Aviation 

Zurich. The purpose was to remove the 

entire analog avionics system and 

cabling and replace it with a fully digital 

installation. 

Under the guidance of the company’s 

engineering department, plans were developed 

based on the latest technical 

standards and according to Swiss and 

US commercial aviation regulations. Jet 

Aviation’s extensive know-how of servicing 

King Air aircraft for many years and 

the in-depth preparation on the engineering 

side paid off. A team of up to six 

avionics specialists worked on the aircraft 

over several months. 

“Our client was extremely happy that we 

completed such an extraordinary project 

ahead of deadline and congratulated us 

on our outstanding engineering and avionics 

installation work,” says Thomas 

Rimml, senior vice president and general 

manager Jet Aviation Zurich. 

Jet Aviation Zurich team 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation Zurich 

Tel. +41 58 158 8111 

Fax +41 58 158 8115 

jzrh@jetaviation.ch 

Midcoast Aviation first to perform 8C inspection on a Global landing gear 

Midcoast Aviation has become the first 

non-original equipment manufacturer 

(OEM) to perform 8C inspections on 

Global landing gear. “Being a Global 

service center, we know it simply makes 

sense for us to expand our horizons and 

continue to offer leading-edge services 

to our Global operators,” says Jay Roever, 

Midcoast Aviation senior manager, accessories. 

The 120-month inspection takes about 

six weeks to perform, and there are about 

30 to 40 aircraft due each year. Midcoast 

Aviation now performs these inspections 

on Globals and Challenger 600s, 601s 

and 604s. Roever adds, “We’re pleased 

to offer one-stop shopping for Global 

operators.” 

Contact: 

Midcoast Aviation 

Tel. +1 800 222 0422 

Tel. +1 618 646 8000 

Fax +1 618 646 8877 

info@midcoast-aviation.com 


55


Latin American markets open up to Jet Aviation and Tropic Air partnership 

In the next 10 years, an estimated 

1,100 business jets will be in operation 

throughout Latin America. This projection, 

reported during the August 2008 

Latin American Business Aviation Conference 

and Exhibition (LABACE) in 

São Paulo by Aero Magazine’s LABACE 

News, represents “a solid segment in 

full expansion,” the magazine said. 

Jet Aviation will work with Tropic Air to 

increase market share in this fastgrowing 

Latin American region by providing 

aircraft charter and management 

services, while Tropic Air benefits from 

Jet Aviation’s administrative and sales 

Privileged TRAVEL TM 

the simplified jet card 

program 

Now in its fourth year, the Jet Aviation 

Privileged TRAVEL card program is 

currently available as an even more 

customizable prepaid jet card. Each 

card will now be tailored exactly to the 

travel needs of the individual client purchasing 

it. 

“Most of our clients purchase cards of 

25 or 50 flight hours in mid-size cabins, 

so we decided to concentrate our offerings 

on the needs of these clients,” said 

56 Outlook 02/2008 

support, plus the opportunity to receive 

additional customer service training. 

The global infrastructure of Jet Aviation’s 

FBO and maintenance facilities will 

offer Tropic Air a worldwide scope it 

previously did not have. 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation do Brasil 

Tel +55 11 5053 3508 

Fax +55 11 5053 3507 

jcgh@jetaviation.com.br 

Bob Seidel, senior vice president and 

general manager of Jet Aviation’s aircraft 

management and charter services 

division in North America. The opportunity 

to purchase fewer flight hours in 

smaller jets, or higher numbers of hours 

in large cabin aircraft, will remain an 

option. When a travel plan is put together 

for a client, all of their wishes will be 

taken into consideration. 

“What is different now is that our customers 

will be able to combine light jet, 

mid-size jet and large jet hours for oneway 

or round-trip use. Jet Aviation’s 

highest standards of safety, premium 

L to R: Rogerio Marques, vice president Jet Aviation 

do Brazil, Dr. Michael Rumpf Gail, president, 

Tropic Air, Robert Seidel, senior vice president and 

general manager of Jet Aviation’s aircraft 

management and charter services The Americas, 

Gary Dempsey, president, Jet Aviation Flight Services 

The Americas 

service and comfort remain when customers 

fly with the Privileged TRAVEL 

program,” notes Seidel. 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation Business Jets Charter 

Tel +1 800 736 8538 

Tel. +1 201 462 4100 

Fax +1 201 624 7338 

charter_usa@jetaviation.com

General Dynamics 

acquires Jet Aviation 

On August 19, 2008 General Dynamics 

announced the acquisition of Jet Aviation 

from the Permira Funds, a private 

equity firm based in Europe. The deal is 

subject to normal antitrust clearance 

and is expected to be closed by the end 

of 2008. Following completion of the acquisition, 

Jet Aviation will continue to 

operate and be managed in its current 

configuration and structure as an independent 

business unit in the General 

Dynamics Group. 

“We are immensely proud to become part 

of such a well respected organization as 

General Dynamics. Our focus will continue 

to center on fulfilling our customer 

US Ogden expansion 

progressing 

As announced earlier this year, 

Jet Aviation’s westward expansion in the 

US continues with the development of a 

maintenance, repair and overhaul 

(MRO) and FBO operation in Ogden, 

Utah. 

The 70,000 sq ft (6,500 sq m) maintenance 

hangar space as well as back 

shop facilities will be managed by Midcoast 

Aviation’s highly experienced 

maintenance operations. Completion is 

underway and the operation will be add- 

commitments while extending the global 

reach of our current lines of business and 

further enhancing our long standing relationships 

with all OEMs, partners and 

customers,” said Peter G. Edwards, CEO 

of the Jet Aviation Group. 

The company will continue with its successful 

business model, serving the entire 

OEM community and its global client base 

as a new business unit within the General 

Dynamics Aerospace group operating under 

the Jet Aviation and Midcoast Aviation 

brands. 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation Worldwide Headquarters 

Tel. +41 58 158 8888 

Fax +41 58 158 8885 

jmgt@jetaviation.ch 

ing up to 200 new employment opportunities 

over the next two years. 

The new location, which also will offer 

a state-of-the-art Jet Aviation FBO at 

Ogden-Hinckley Airport, is expected to 

commence operations in early 2009. 

General Dynamics 

Founded in 1952, General 

Dynamics is a market leader in 

business aviation; land and 

expeditionary combat vehicles 

and systems, armaments, and 

munitions; shipbuilding and 

marine systems; and missioncritical 

information systems and 

technologies. The company is 

headquartered in Falls Church, 

Virginia, USA, employs approximately 

84,600 people and has a 

global presence. 

Contact: 

Jet Aviation Holdings USA 

Tel. +1 201 288 8400 

Fax +1 201 462 4136 

jhdg@jetaviation.com 


57

Masthead and advertisers 

Outlook Magazine 02/2008 

Published by: 

Jet Aviation Management AG 

Peter G. Edwards, CEO 

P.O. Box 229 

CH-8058 Zurich-Airport l Switzerland 

Tel. +41 58 158 8888 l Fax +41 58 158 8885 

jmgt@jetaviation.com 

Project management: 

Heinz R. Aebi, Mirjam Minichiello 

Editor-in-chief: 

Heinz R. Aebi 

Authors: 

Stephanie Schwartz, Heinz R. Aebi, 

Christine Schindler, Ann Hein, Liz Moscrop, 

Patrick D. Sniffen, Denise Torre 

Photography: 

Roland Buecheler, Decision, Dr. Michael Rumpf 

Gail, Kirsten Holst, Pamela Jones, Mike Massee, 

Toni Mohr, Premium Switzerland, Ricola, 

Rocket Racing Team, Swarovski, Patrick Sniffen, 

Margherita Spiluttini, Grand Hotel Zermatterhof 

Concept and design: 

Publicis Werbeagentur AG 

Zurich l Switzerland 

Printed by: 

Sommer Corporate Media GmbH & Co. KG 

Waiblingen l Germany 

Print run: 

30,000 copies 

Orders: 

jmgt@jetaviation.com 

Copyright: 

Outlook is published semi-annually. 

The contents may be reproduced with credit 

to Outlook, the magazine of Jet Aviation. 

Advertising inquiries: 

For all advertising inquiries please call 

Heinz R. Aebi in EMEA at +41 58 158 8890 or 

e-mail heinz.aebi@jetaviation.ch. 

In the U.S. please contact 

Patrick D. Sniffen at +1 201 393 6926 or 

e-mail patrick_sniffen@jetaviation.com 

© Copyright 2008 Jet Aviation. 

All rights reserved. 

The Julius Baer Group is the leading dedicated wealth manager in 

Switzerland. With some 4,000 employees worldwide, the Group managed assets in 

excess of CHF 400 billion at the end of 2007. The Julius Baer Group’s global presence comprises more than 30 

locations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia, including Zurich as Head Office. The shares of 

Julius Baer Holding Ltd. are listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange and form part of the Swiss Market Index SMI, 

which comprises the 20 largest and most liquid stocks. 

UBS Leasing AG is a 100% subsidiary of UBS AG, headquartered in Zurich, with 

offices in Lausanne and Lugano. It specializes in financial leasing as well as in 

refinancing of rental and leasing contracts for equipment and fleet leasing. Its 

clients range from small businesses to large corporation as well as international corporate groups, the public 

authority in Switzerland and the Principality of Lichtenstein. In the international sector, it is active in corporate 

aircraft financing. UBS Leasing AG is one of the leading financing companies in Switzerland. 

Founded in 1932, Harry Winston is known as the “King of Diamonds” and 

“Jeweler to the Stars” as the inventor of modern couture jewelry. Harry Winston has 

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handmade craftsmanship, quality gems and innovative gem stone settings. Harry Winston Inc. is headquartered 

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Dassault Falcon is part of Dassault Aviation, a leading global aerospace company. 

Since the rollout of the first Falcon 20 in 1963, over 1,800 Falcon jets have been 

delivered to more than 65 countries worldwide. The family of Falcon jets currently 

in production includes the tri-jets – the Falcon 50EX, 900DX, 900EX EASy and the new 7X – as well as the twinengine 

Falcon 2000 and 2000EX EASy. The company has assembly and production plants in both France and 

the US and service facilities in Europe and North America. It employs a total workforce of over 12,000. 

Founded in 1875 by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet in the 

Swiss village of Le Brassus, Audemars Piguet is the oldest manufacture of Haute 

Horlogerie never to have left the hands of the founding families. Today, its range 

encompasses complex mechanical watches, Haute Joaillerie creations as well as a line of jewelry. At each stage 

in its history, the manufacturer has daringly adopted avant-garde techniques in order to place them in the service 

of traditional craftsmanship. Worldwide, Audemars Piguet currently employs over 1,000 people. 

LEVIEV is the leading name in luxury diamond jewelry. Named after Lev Leviev, the 

‘diamantaire extraordinaire,’ LEVIEV presents a superlative array of rare, large and 

® 

extraordinary diamonds… and diamond jewelry of unparalleled beauty. From 

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all diamonds are conflict-free. Visit a LEVIEV boutique in New York, London, Moscow or Dubai. 

Instruments for Professionals. More than a slogan, it’s a vocation. Our obsession 

is quality. Our goal is performance. Day after day, we consistently enhance the 

sturdiness and functionality of our chronographs. And we submit all our movements 

to the merciless scrutiny of the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute. One simply does not become an 

aviation supplier by chance.

profession: pilot career: actor 

People are acquainted with the star, the multi-faceted actor. But John Travolta is also a seasoned pilot with more than 5,000 flight hours under 

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Breitling Navitimer 

A cult object for aviation enthusiasts. 

chronometer-certified by the COSC (Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute). One simply does not 

become an aviation supplier by chance. www.breitling.com

profession: pilot career: actor - Jet Aviation

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