When visiting the various industry tradeshows taking place around the world, I’ve come to realise that there can be many different interpretations of the word ‘busy’. Having experienced and been part of the huge numbers of visitors attending the Paris Airshow, this adjective just doesn’t do this event justice.
Show organisers, exhibitors and visitors all have their own views regarding what constitutes healthy attendance figures, but at the Paris Airshow there are more queues than at your average call centre.
Packed aisles, packed stands, the Paris Airshow packs them in with its sheer exhibitor presence and aviation joie de vivre. Inside the halls, expect to be jostled by the throng of visitors rubbernecking to get a better view of the latest innovative products on show, whilst among the welter of warm welcomes and benevolent backslaps, old acquaintances will be renewed and new and mutually beneficial partnerships will be established.
Outside, the chalets will be fizzing as important business deals are hammered out whilst overhead, the skies will be rent asunder as the latest military jet fighters are put through their paces. My personal favourite that sometimes leaves Le Bourget’s runway is the beautiful but frankly bonkers-looking Breitling Lockheed Super Constellation; the distinctive drone of this passenger plane’s engines representing the sweet refrain of aviation’s halcyon days from a long, vanished time.
Let’s all hope for a fantastic turnout in attendance that will help allay any industry turbulence - economic or otherwise – that has been preceding the show itself. Based on this evidence and the predicted sheer weight in numbers of ‘mostly’ happy visitors and exhibitors alike, I will be very surprised if the aerospace industry isn’t still growing, thriving, fizzy, and busy for some time to come!
Mike Richardson, editor
