Amy Svitak

Amy was Aviation Week's Paris bureau chief until September 2016, covering European space and defense programs and the commercial satellite telecom industry.

Amy has reported extensively on space and defense programs in the U.S. and Europe, covering the final days of NASA's space shuttle program and the emergence of entrepreneurial space companies seeking a foothold in the commercial market. In defense, Amy closely covered the U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tanker competition during the administration of George W. Bush, the largest procurement scandal in the service's recent history. She also followed the proceedings of the 9/11 Commission and the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Raised in a small town in central Arizona, Amy covered community and education issues for the state's largest daily newspaper before moving to Washington in 1999. She worked as the international arms trade reporter and later the Capitol Hill correspondent for Defense News, spent three years covering U.S. national security spending for National Journal's Congress Daily and two years writing about NASA at Space News before joining Aviation Week in May 2011.