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Selling aircraft is a high-profit-margin part of Dolphin's
business. For the fiscal years ending August 31, 1992 and 1993,
approximately 30 percent of Dolphin's gross receipts came from
aircraft sales and leases.
Mr. Ciaravella is the chief executive officer and sales
manager of Dolphin, overseeing its general operations and
playing the primary role in the marketing of Dolphin's products
and services, including sales and leases of airplanes.
Mr. Ciaravella has been flying since 1969, when he was age 17 and
started working for the previous owners of Dolphin. In time he
bought the business from them. Unlike some aircraft salesmen,
Mr. Ciaravella can actually fly the aircraft he markets; he has
more than 9,000 hours of flying time, including about 1,000 hours
in Learjets.
Dolphin used to be a distributor for Piper aircraft and
would sell propeller-driven aircraft made by Piper, Beechcraft,
and Cessna until the mid-1980's when those companies went out of
business. Mr. Ciaravella began to purchase Learjets in an effort
to reinvigorate the aircraft sales and leasing portion of
Dolphin's business. Used Learjets are at the low end of the
price scale for commercial grade jet aircraft.
In 1988, Mr. Ciaravella went to three different schools to
learn how to drive high-performance, open-wheeled race cars.
Open-wheeled race cars have large tires, uncovered by fenders,
and they are much more difficult to drive than stock cars and
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Last modified: May 25, 2011