Cary R. Spitzer is a graduate of Virginia Tech and George Washington University. After service in the Air Force he joined NASA Langley Research Center. During the last half of his tenure at NASA he focused on avionics. He was the NASA manager of a joint NASA/Honeywell program that made the first satellite-guided automatic landing of a passenger trans¬port aircraft in the United States in November 1990. In recognition of this accomplishment ARINC, ALPA, AOPA, ATA, NBAA, and RTCA jointly nominated him for the 1991 Collier Trophy "for his pioneering work in proving the concept of GPS aided precision approaches." Mr. Spitzer was the NASA representative to the AEEC. In 1988 he received the Airlines Avionics Institute Chairman's Special Volare Award. He is only the second federal government employee so honored in over 50 years. In 1993, Mr. Spitzer founded AvioniCon, an international avionics consulting firm that special¬izes in technology trends, avionics systems architectures, strategic planning and business development.Mr. Spitzer is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He received the AIAA 1994 Digital Avionics Award, an IEEE Centennial Medal, and an IEEE Millennium Medal. He is a Past President of the IEEE Aero¬space and Electronic Systems Society and Past Chairman of the IEEE United States Activities Aerospace Policy Committee. Since 1979, he has played a major role in the highly successful IEEE/AIAA Digital Avionics Systems Conferences, including presenting tutorials and serving as General Chairman.
He is the author of Digital Avionics Systems, (two editions) the first book in the field, republished by Blackburn Press, and Editor-in-Chief of the Avionics Handbook, published by CRC Press.