Typhoon Lands at Farnborough for 2010 Airshow - Image with thanks Paul Dopson/Flight Global
Farnborough Airshow is something everyone is talking about so I hope to use the blog to add a bit of commentary to what is going on leading up to and during airshow week. In effect, I am stealing David Whitcroft’s idea from his Series inspired by the general election. My blogs over the next week will be a series inspired by Farnborough Airshow 2010. I will be inviting others to contribute too.
First a little of the Farnborough Airshow history:
The very first Farnborough Airshow was in 1948 and has become the number one aviation event in the world. The show happens every two years and rotates with the Paris Airshow. The 2008 Farnborough Airshow marked the shows Diamond anniversary alongside the anniversary of 100 years of British powered flight.
The venue for the airshow has a long and distinguished history with aviation that goes back to 1908 with many aviation firsts to come from the site. Probably the most famous is Samuel Cody’s first powered flight in Great Britain. These days, each show takes years of planning and preparation with the build-up taking 4 months. It takes 6000 contractors to build the main exhibition halls and stands.
The 2008 show saw 285,636 visitors of which 153,000 visited the show on the two weekend public days alone.
Farnborough Airshow is predominately a trade show. Orders generated from the 2008 show were US$88.7 billion up from the 2006 figure of US$42 billion. This highlights just how important this show is for the aviation, aerospace and defence industries.
For a really good report on the history of the Farnborough check out Jack Sommers report on the Get Hampshire web site.
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