The facts speak for themselves: the exhibition area over 30,000 m², with 1,152 participants and over 110 aircraft! About 32,000 people came to see all that during the three days of this grand festival.
Work and festivities in one package
What makes American shows peculiar is that they travel. Every year residents of a different American state can see the latest achievements of business aviation, one after another. This year the air show landed in Atlanta, and it wasn't by chance: the NBAA decided to celebrate its 60th year together with the 100th anniversary of the first flight in the state of Georgia. Indeed, the country honours not only national-level events but also individual contributions by each of the states.
The American show is different not only by its mobile character, grandeur or scale. The NBAA isn't just a demonstration of the industry's crème de la crème - it's a part of the community life where festivities are interlaced with everyday work. The week of the exhibition included everything from a golf tournament and actual presentations to training seminars on relevant issues. There was also an event which clearly demonstrated that the NBAA was an integral part of community life. The show was preceded by the association's members building a children's playground - not a bad beginning in my book.
A peek into tomorrow
Appropriately, aircraft manufacturers had the most impressive and interesting stands. The public was primarily interested in each stand's contents, so the makers were lavish with premieres. New models were presented next to conceptual prototypes. During these three days the visitors could take a seat in the cabins of the most expensive and prestigious aircraft in the world, and take a peek at the future of business and private aviation. The premieres included Hawker 900ХР, next generation Pilatus PC-12, interior of Adam A700 and conceptual prototypes of Eclipse and Piper Jet.
In addition to the new LearJet 60XR, Bombardier impressed the participants with the new Global Vision Flight Deck cockpit designed for long-range business jets Global 5000 and Global Express XRS. Its distinctive feature was Pro Line 21 Fusion avionics by Rockwell Collins - another debut at the show.
Honda Aircraft announced a number of major changes to its HondaJet project. Visitors could see a radically new concept of modern light jet interior, based on an ergonomic cabin providing increased comfort and safety to passengers.
Eurocopter and Hermes fashion house revealed the details of a unique engineering and designer solution for a new exclusive rotorcraft. The company presented the new Hermes helicopter. The handpicked team chose ЕС 135 as the basis for the first machine of this kind.
Business comes first
However, despite the abundance of new models professionals believed the most important events of the show were announcements of mergers and acquisitions. Cessna announced an acquisition of Columbia Aircraft. For the first time in 80 years of its history Cessna is going to buy a line of aircraft designed by another company. Action Aviation announced that they bought controlling interest in Sino-Swearingen Aircraft from the Taiwanese government. According to the company management, new investments should help to launch the production of the already certified SJ-30 aircraft. Indian Kingfisher Airlines bought 50% of Epic shares to start manufacturing Epic superlight jets at its own production facility. Note that the Indian firm is counting on the assistance from Airbus to certify Epic aircraft.
And of course every exhibition is supposed to yield substantial financial results to its participants. Each day of the show dozens of contracts to supply all sorts of airplanes and helicopters were signed. The biggest included contracts for 30 Cessna Citation X and 80 Challenger 300 for XOJet, 25 German SPn Jet by Grob Aerospace for Plane Sense. 9 new Falcon 7X will be added to NetJet's fleet, while VistaJet is about to receive three Airbus ASJ aircraft. Airbus announced the sale of the first-ever A380 VIP - though not to Mr Abramovich. The aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in 2010 to one of the Middle Eastern countries. Lufthansa Technik's portfolio now includes two orders to decorate VIP A330 cabins. This certainly isn't the full list of agreements made by the exhibition's participants: after all, the NBAA gives a chance not only to sign a contract for new machines and equipment but also to find and acquire some aircraft that are already in use by various other airlines.
Sooner or later everything comes to an end; the NBAA 2007 is also a thing of the past now. The show's participants and guests flew home, but only to come together again a year later, this time in Orlando on Florida Coast. And one very much hopes that at the next forum of the international business aviation elite Russian will be spoken more often.
text and photos by Vladimir Kodintsev
Photoreport
USD:
EUR:
