The father of Airbus's fly-by-wire technology has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Flightglobal Achievement Awards, held during the show.
Bernard Ziegler, who retired from the Toulouse airframer in 1997, was an engineer and test pilot who helped devise and championed the fly-by-wire and flight envelope protection technology that did so much to set Airbus apart from its rivals.
Other winners were EasyJet's engineering head, Ian Davies, who teamed with a Norwegian-based academic to come up with a early warning system for ash contamination, after the disruption caused to aviation by the 2010 Icelandic volcanic eruption, Bell Helicopter chief executive John Garrison, who has led a resurgence of the commercial business at the rotorcraft manufacturer, and avionics specialist Rockwell Collins for bringing touchscreen cockpit technology within reach of pilots of smaller aircraft.
Two Chinese students, Jianying Tracy Ji of Washington State University and - for the first time under a special category for undergraduates - Yayu Monica Hew of the University of Texas at Arlington were named Boeing Engineering Students of the Year.
The ceremony was hosted by TAG Farnborough Airport to mark the opening of its new hangar - part of the aviation services company's facility on the opposite side of the runway from the show. The guest speaker was Great Britain Olympic gold medal hurdler Sally Gunnell, and the event was sponsored by AJW Aviation, Boeing and Bombardier. The ceremony was hosted by Flight International Editor Murdo Morrison.
These are the only industry awards where the winners are chosen by popular vote. Flightglobal.com users voted for Aviator (Davies and colleague Fred Prata), Leader (Garrison) and Innovator (Rockwell Collins) of the Year. The Lifetime Achievement recipient is chosen by Flightglobal editors, while senior Boeing engineers, past and present, judge Engineering Student of the Year candidates.