Faentia Consulting was present also this year at the Farnborough Air Show, the most important event in international aviation aerospace that takes place every two years and attracts hundreds of thousands of participants in a small town in West London. Here, in Farnborough, many important names of the civil aviation, the military aviation and the space agencies come together to compare the latest discoveries in technology, to present the latest aircraft models on the market and establish strategic commercial partnerships. As usual, Faentia Consulting participates in this important event to understand the current state of things and to stay constantly up-to-date. The fair took place from the 9th to the 15th of July 2012 and was opened by the premier British David Cameron. Usually the fair is divided into two distinct phases; the first phase this year was open from the 9th to 13th of July only for traders and from the 14th to 15th also for the public in general. Our general impression was been that of a very articulated and vast fair, in which every nation has had a show floor at disposition in order to introduce the respective supplier company in the aeronautical field. Apart from the very well known "giants of the air" like the caliber of Boeing and Airbus there where also Italy represented by the poles of Lombardy, Piedmont and Umbria and on top priority the Italian company Finmeccanica with his imposing exhibition stand that welcomed all the visitors.
Amanda Stainer (Director of the Farnborough International Air-show and Farnborough) sustains that it is evident how the global economic climate has engraved on the participants at that fair, that is fairly divided between aerospace aviation, military aviation and civilian one. However, the military sector of the aeronautics preferred to maintain a rather low profile due to the notable cuts that the world governments have effected on the expenses related to the defense. In fact, it’s missed to the appeal the giant Northrop Grumman, one of the greatest American suppliers of the world, while Finemccanica and BAE were present with a slightly reduced budget in comparison to the preceding editions. If the things seems to slow down in the military sector, the sales rate on new models for the civil aviation of the emergent countries are growing up of 5%, while the renovation of old civil and commercial models will produce even an increase of 5,2%. The company Boeing knows it well; the new model 787 Dreamliners exposed in Farnborough by Qatar Airlines launched on the market with well three years of delay in comparison to the forecasts. Due to this delay the number one company Airbus have taken advantage in the sector of the civil aviation that has indeed increased the sales of his own new model A320 Neo.
We not only observed a notable influx of firms that work in the aerospace circle, but also we found from the technical point of view some elements of relief: the jet engines for aircraft always more highly-performing and efficient, a green tendency - sensitive to environmental issues – responding especially to the current socio-economic time; the UAV or drones increasingly sophisticated and able to carry out almost total autonomy performances in most of the tasks assigned to the pilots: they can now fly the machines while sitting in front of a screen and with the aid of equipment ever more immersive and detailed. The final note concerns the Virgin intergalactic aircraft (see photo) which best represents the fusion of two worlds, the aeronautical and space, bringing to market the Trans-Atmospheric flights - it means flights into space, - with more than 150 flights already booked at ... at soaring prices!