Bill was Editor-in-Chief of Business & Commercial Aviation from 2000 to 2020. During his stewardship, the monthly magazine received scores of awards for editorial excellence.
He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the National Business Aviation Association; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Aerospace Media Awards; the Aviation Journalism Award from the National Air Transportation Association; and an Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award for Business Aviation.
Previously, Bill served as Managing Editor of Aviation Week Television. He was the top editor for both Flying and Professional Pilot magazines, as well as a member of the senior editorial staff at Reader's Digest. He also managed communications for FlightSafety International.
Bill has authored or co-authored three aviation books, was an essayist for National Public Radio, wrote aviation documentaries for The Discovery Channel and has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, Smithsonian Air & Space, Popular Mechanics and The Associated Press, among others.
An active aviator, Bill holds a Commercial Pilot license, along with multiengine, instrument, seaplane and glider ratings.
I'VE YEARNED FOR JOBS I never got: fighter pilot, treasure hunter, Sophia Loren's boy toy. And I've turned down some I didn't want: pest control executive, junior banker and office supply journalist -- I still see the interviewer, his fists upraised, earnestly explaining, "Bill, what we do is take the eraser people [he jiggles his right fist] and the pencil people [he jiggles the left] and [now fist touching fist] put them together." Just shoot me. Then there was the job I never knew was mine.
After graduating cum laude from Harvard, Stimpson went home to promote the Seattle World's Fair. One VIP guest was FAA Administrator Najeeb Halaby, who was so impressed with the bright Washington State native he urged him to come to Washington, D.C., and work for him. That decision evolved into seven years at the FAA and a 25-year run as head of GAMA and then a five-year appointment as the U.S. representative to ICAO in Montreal, with the rank of ambassador.
After 13 years in aviation, most of them with US Airways where he served as an executive in its operations, service, Express, MetroJet and Shuttle divisions, Scheeringa joined Flight Options in 2004 and took the helm of the company in November of that year. Founded in 1998, the fractional operator, now a wholly-owned Raytheon subsidiary, operates nearly 200 aircraft in behalf of more than 2000 owners and employs 1800 "team members," including some 800 pilots. 1 Flight Options originally operated refurbished jets. Is that practice over?
