Al Conklin and Bill de Decker Business Aviation Management Scholarship

NBAA Charities and Jet Support annually award up to $5,000 to an undergraduate student who is officially enrolled in an aviation management program at a two or four year school. Scholarships will be awarded for the academic year, and checks will be made payable to the school. Awards will be made to U.S. citizens or permanent residents without regard to sex, race, religion or national origin.

The scholarship was initially created to honor the memory of Al Conklin, a U.S. Air Force veteran and business aviation leader for more than 60 years. Conklin’s experience as a business aircraft salesman in the early decades of his career informed his later work in proving the economic value of aircraft to business. Today, the scholarship also honors Bill de Decker’s contributions to business aviation, for which he was honored in 2014 with NBAA’s John P. “Jack” Doswell Award. Together, Al Conklin and Bill de Decker first published the Aircraft Cost Evaluator in the 1970’s and later founded Conklin & de Decker, an aviation information company that provides aircraft operating cost and performance data.