Fantastic Farnborough

Once again, Pacific Wings was right in the action at Farnborough International 2010. Peter Cooper was there all week not only as Pacific Wings’ UK correspondent, but also as Farnborough Airport’s semi-official historian and photographer.

Farnborough is unquestionably the cradle of British aviation. One hundred and two years ago, it was the site of the first powered flight in the UK. Today, it is a thriving business airport and, once every two years, the site of the world-renowned Farnborough International Air Show. From 19–26 July, it was home to Farnborough International Air Show 2010—the 39^th international display on this hallowed ground.

Not since the halcyon days of the 1950s and 1960s have there been so many new types displayed at Farnborough. This year there were 12 new aircraft on display, three of them—the Airbus A400M, Sukhoi Superjet 100 and Antonov An-158—all making their maiden UK flying displays.

Each of the trade days included a 2½-hour flying display, which included numerous unmanned aerial systems (UASs), as the smaller UAVs are now preferred to be called (the CAA would not allow large UAVs to be flown). Looking like model aircraft, the UASs made flying displays for the first time. The excellent flying programme during the trade days varied from the diminutive UASs and light aircraft like the Diamond DA42, to the giant Airbus A380. The way that airliners and large military freighters were thrown around the sky produced many gasps and wows from the attendees! In addition—as one would expect—there was plenty of noise and reheat from the fast jets, which put on outstanding displays once again.

The show was officially opened on the Monday with a formation fly-past by two British aviation icons, the RAF’s “Red Arrows” aerobatic team in their Hawk T.1s together with the preserved Avro Vulcan B.2 (now named Spirit of Great Britain 1960–2010). What a sight it was!

The Red Arrows taxi out for their display.

The trade days’ flying display was kicked off by the Airbus Military A400M “Grizzly” (the name given to the A400M during the show)—and what a beast the “Grizzly” is. It cavorted around the sky in a most “un-cargo-lifter” manner with an unusual low whistling sound from its four EuroProp International TP400-D6 engines and a growl from its large scimitar-shaped eight-bladed propellers. The A400M’s display was followed by a lively performance from the Airbus A380 which showed what a large airliner should not do—at least when full of passengers! Other notable flying demonstrations included the absolutely awesome Lockheed F-22 Raptor (unfortunately only for two days), which appeared to defy the laws of gravity in everything it did. Boeing displayed its F/A-18F Super Hornet, an aircraft which never fails to impress, and Lockheed Martin displayed an F-16C Fighting Falcon from the 31 Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy. Lockheed Martin also displayed a C-130J Hercules from 86 Air Wing Ramstein Air Base, Germany, which also flew manoeuvres not normally associated with a large transport aircraft.

Two new Russian airliners, the Sukhoi SuperJet 100 and the Antonov An-158 (looking, respectively, like an Airbus A319 and a two-engined BAe146) performed more sedate routines—more befitting regional airliners.

While the Eurofighter Typhoon is now well-established on the UK air show circuit (the RAF have displayed it for the last four display seasons), BAE Systems flew a test aircraft with a heavy load of weapons and stores including four Paveway IIs, four Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAMs and two MBDA ASRAAMs, and three external fuel tanks—none of which seemed to make any difference to its superb show routine.

As expected, the Vulcan to the Sky Trust displayed the mighty Avro Vulcan XH558. The delta bomber is a real crowd pleaser with its sheer power, sound and manoeuvrability (55 years ago, Roly Falk, the famed Avro test pilot of the time, rolled a Vulcan B.1 during a display at Farnborough to highlight its outstanding manoeuvrability).

Undoubtedly, the star of the show—and upstaging Airbus for the two days it was present—was the all-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which arrived on Sunday, 17 July after a non-stop 9-hour 31-minute trans-Atlantic flight from Seattle. This magnificent airliner was a sight to behold and its initial fly-by over Farnborough included a waggle of wings to let the waiting press know that it had arrived. This truly modern airliner is currently in a league of its own with its carbon-fibre construction. The 787 attracted a great deal of interest from the industry, the press and the public, and it was significant that a new airliner of this breed made its first appearance outside the USA at Farnborough. Its departure after the show on the Tuesday involved a spirited take-off, followed by a single fly-past with a Spitfire off each wing tip. The 787 then pulled up and climbed away to make a fly-past over the Rolls-Royce engine plant at Derby, where the 787’s Trent 1000 engines are made. After that, it was off to Shannon to refuel before returning across the Atlantic to Seattle to resume its busy flight test programme. The 787’s presence was a significant boost and draw to the show, and we hope to see more of it in future.

This year’s Farnborough was the first to be operated under the new ADS (Aerospace, Defence, Security) parent company. ADS incorporates the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC), the previous long-standing organiser of Farnborough International Airshows, as well as the Defence Manufacturers’ Association, and the Association of Police and Public Security Suppliers. According to ADS, the consortium’s various companies employ more than 500,000 people and generate more than US$90 billion annually to the UK economy.

Across the 107,498 m² of exhibition space on site, 1455 companies from 40 different countries at this year’s show had lots to offer the 120,461 trade visitors from 44 countries, and heaps of “freebies” for the 108,000 public visitors who attended during the weekend.

Business has always been brisk at Farnborough and this year was no exception. Orders announced at the show included the following:

Airbus:

60 A320s for Virgin (including 20 options)

60 A320s for GECAS

31 A320s and 20 A321s for Air Lease Corp

11 A330s for Aeroflot

10 A321s for LAN Chile plus an MoU for 50 A320s

15 A350s and 10 A330s (MoU from Hong Kong Air)

7 A330-200s for Thai International

6 A330-200s for Garuda

5 A319s for Germania.

ATR:

10 ATR72-600s plus 10 options for Air Lease Corp

20 ATR72-600s for Azul (Brazil)

7 ATR42s for Nordic Aviation (Denmark)

2 ATR72-500s for Lao Airlines

2 ATR72-500s for Golden Air (Sweden).

Boeing:

30 B777-300ERs for Emirates

40 B737-800s for GECAS

15 B737-800s for Norwegian Air Shuttle

54 B737-800s plus 60 options for Air Lease Corp

12 B737-800s for Avolan (an Irish lessor)

3 B787-8s for Royal Jordanian Airlines

2 B777-200LRs for Qatar Airways

2 B777-200LRs for Air Austral (France).

Bombardier:

2 Global 5000s for Qatar Airways plus 1 Challenger

4 Global XRSs plus 2 Challenger CL-605s for Vistajet (Switzerland)

4 Global XRSs for undisclosed customers in Russia

7 Q400s for Qantas.

Embraer

35 E175s for FlyBe plus 65 options (and possibly another 40 or so)

10 E190s (Letter of Intent) for Air Lease Corp

5 E195s for Azul (Brazil)

2 E190s for Trip (Brazil)

24 E190s for Republic (USA).

Sukhoi (Superjet 100):

30 plus 15 options for Pearl Aircraft Corp (Bermuda)

30 for Kartika (Indonesia)

12 plus 12 options for Orient Thai.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100

Antonov announced orders for 20 An-158s. Irkut announced 130 orders for its yet to be flown MS-21 twin-jet 150 seat airliner: 28 orders plus 22 options for Ilyushin Finance (Russia), 50 for Crecom (a Malaysian investment company), and 15 plus 15 options for VEB-Lizing (a Russian lessor).

In addition to the high-profile orders listed above (which amounted to some US$47 billion), there was a great deal more business transacted “behind the scenes”, with many such deals not announced publicly.

Rain held off until Thursday but when it happened, it was akin to a monsoon! Fortunately, by the time the flying was scheduled to start, the rain had departed, leaving a blustery wind and broken cloud that allowed the show to go on. A similar thing happened on Friday. For most of the week, though, Farnborough was blessed with hot sweltering weather, and the cold drink vendors and ice cream vans did a roaring trade.

The flying display was somewhat different during the public days at the weekend because—unfortunately—many of the aircraft that were present for the trade days had departed (quite why, we shall never know). However, additions included the Red Arrows, the Army Historic Flight (Chipmunk T.10, Sioux AH.1, Alouette AH.1 and Scout AH.1), two Spitfires (an LF.XIVe and LF.IXe, both of Spitfire Ltd) and the HA.1112 Buchon (Historic Flying), a Chinook HC.2 18/27 Sqn, a solo Hurricane IIB display (Historic Aircraft Collection), a PBY-5A Catalina (Plane Sailing Air Displays), the Great War display team (seven World War 1 replica aircraft), and the Royal Navy Historic Flight Sea Hawk FGA.6 and Kennet Aviation’s Seafire F.47.

Amongst the 120 or so aircraft in the static display, there were a few notable rarities, the most significant and exotic of which were two Pakistan Air Force JF-17 “Thunder” fighters belonging to the newly reformed No. 26 Squadron (“Black Spiders”) from Peshawar. The JF-17 (known as the FC-1 Xiaolong in China) was developed jointly by China’s Chengdu Aerospace and the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex for the Pakistan Air Force, which will eventually operate up to 250 of them. Its Farnborough appearance marked the type’s first visit to Europe, and sends a clear signal that the manufacturers are promoting this type outside Asia and hoping for further export orders. The Thunder is powered by a Russian Klimov RD-93 engine and utilises a Chinese NRIET KLJ-7 radar. It can carry an assortment of Chinese-built weapons, including the C-802A anti-ship missile, the LS-6 glide-bomb, the SD-10A homing air-to-air missile and the PL-511 infrared air-to-air missile, as well as Electronic Warfare pods and a WMD-7 targeting pod.

Pakistan received its first (Chinese built) JF-17 in March 2007 and its first indigenously built version in November 2009. En route to the show, the Farnborough pair refuelled in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and travelled home via Pratica di Mare, Italy. One of the No. 26 Sqn pilots told the writer that they had had a long journey and were very pleased to be at Farnborough. While the aircraft had not yet been authorised for display flying, he said they hoped to return in 2012 and give flying demonstrations.

ATR displayed a Nigerian Air Force ATR 42MP Surveyor variant (one of two delivered to Nigeria); CASA showed off a brand new C-295 ASW (anti-submarine warfare) variant for the type’s launch customer, the Chilean Navy (which ordered two); AgustaWestland (Finmeccanica Group) displayed an Italian Coast Guard AW139, one of the RNZAF’s new A109E Powers, an A109 GrandNew, a Danish Air Force Merlin Mk.512 and the second prototype of the AW159 Lynx Wildcat, which is scheduled to make its first flight in mid-August. AgustaWestland also unveiled a mock-up of its new AW169 ten-passenger multi-role helicopter (designed to fit in between the GrandNew and AW139 products) in Police/EMS configuration, along with a mock-up of the previously released AW149 multi-role utility/troop-carrying helicopter.

In addition to the 787, Boeing displayed a B777-3DZER that is already operational with Qatar Airways and, making its Farnborough debut, a new B737 AEW&C “Wedgetail” bound for the Turkish Air Force.

Other interesting displays included Diamond Aircraft’s biofuel powered DA42 and MP variants, Saab’s Gripen NG, Bombardier’s Q400 NextGen, the Beech AT6C and the Hawker 4000. On 20 July, Airbus handed over the first A330-200F (freighter) to Etihad Airways.

There were more than a few disbelieving stares at the arrival of a Grumman G.21G Goose at Farnborough in 2010. However, this amphibian aircraft was very different from its 60-year-old ancestors. Powered by Airesearch TPE-331s turboprops, it was fitted out with an executive interior that justified its presence in the business park alongside the posh biz-jets.

Among the many UAVs and UASs of various shapes and sizes on show (in both real and mock-up form), an interesting “first” was the indoors flying display (inside a netted cage) by the Air 2 Air DraganFlyer X6—one of the smaller eye-in-the-sky varieties. This was in addition to the 30-minute slot before the start of the trade day flying displays, when small UASs were flown on the airfield for real. Looking more like large model aeroplanes and helicopters, they made their point. However, the UK CAA also made a point by refusing to allow full-size UASs to be flown during the show because of Farnborough’s close proximity to built-up areas; who knows—maybe this will change in future.

The number of UAVS of all shapes and sizes displayed at all major air shows is growing rapidly.

Although this year’s Farnborough didn’t approach the 2008 record for US$88.7 billion of sales, the still-impressive 2010 total of US$47 billion reflects a reassuring returning confidence in the global aviation industry. The positive economic signs, combined with the significant number of new aircraft present and the superb flying displays, made Farnborough International Air Show 2010 a show to remember.

The 2012 Farnborough International will be held between 9–15 July 2012—one week earlier than usual to avoid clashing with the organisational build-up to the 2012 London Olympics. Bring it on!