Farnborough Disappointment

[VORTIME]

Did anyone else feel "unwelcomed" during the Farnborough open days..."don't touch that", "invitation only", "no public access", "trade only", 3-mile barriers around every static aircraft...

I didn't manage to see inside a single aircraft and all GA was excluded including Cirrus who advertise their presence there.

Oh, and to all those people to hid further behind their paper while people approached the stands to look - our aplogises for you having to work today.

American's were particularly friendly and welcoming to most of their stands.

Any other opinions?

p.s. wasn't the weather fantastic!?!

VT

[Genghis the Engineer]

What were you expecting? Farnborough is a trade show, for people buying selling and developing aerospace products. It isn't, and never has been a public airshow like Fairford.

G

[capt_sparky]

But at least it didn't take five hours to drive to Farnborough - averaged only 14 mph on the journey to Fairford ) :(

[BLW Skylark 4]

I went on both public and trade days and found it equally unwelcoming (with one or two refreshing exceptions) on both!

I can understand the public days to some extent, but the elitism on display during the 'trade' days when most people there either work in or have a connection with the aircraft industry was staggering!

Quite frankly I came away with one overiding thought in my mind - "Stuff em!".

'BLW'

[Aussie Andy]

The weather was great, the traffic and parking not as bad as I remembered from 6 years ago, and the flying displays were great - don't even bother going into the pavillions!

I must say I particularly enjoyed the pair of gliders that did their thing in synch. and set to music :-)

For Red Arrows display, left the grandstand and the airfield and got ourselves into a car park at the back of IBM's offices to watch - this is directly in the display line, and you get lots of low passes directly overhead... a new perspective on their routine, and highly recommended ;-)

[Dave Gittins]

Went yesterday for the first time in years and found there were so few aeroplanes flying that everybody got 2 goes - or the display would only have lasted an hour and a half. The Dak and Twin Pioneer were almost more interesting ... and who wants to buy a Spitfire - thre were 2 demonstrated at different times?

Very little of GA interest and as I was there to make contacts for a bid to build a new airport (I only found out on Friday !), I was really disappointed that there were no terminal building equipment and airside equipment suppliers there. It was nearly all component manufacturers to aeroplane builders and airlines.

The number of little boys I heard being actively encouraged by their parents to "see what you can get for nothing" must have lead to a terrible rash of plundering of almost anything that could be moved - whether it was any use to the plunderee or not.

Oh, and the courtesy bus to car park Q probably finished work about midnight ! We walked the 15 mins or so ... and I feel lousy today through excess sun. (Does it show ?)

How does a serious buyer .... without any current industry contacts .... get to trade days to make the contacts ?? Are the other major trade shows any better ???

[I have control]

Next time... come to Oshkosh instead!

[treadigraph]

Yep, that was my last Farnborough...

As a trade show it's probably great, as a public spectacle, the shine has gone. As Dave Gittins points out, the appearance of at least four "acts" twice revealed a distinct lack of aeronautica for display - perhaps a few gaps were occasioned by stuff that had beetled off early, or by the absence of the Russians who I heard somewhere had other worries...

That's not to say some of the displays weren't great, paticularly Zavier de Lapparent, but £22 is a bit steep. And they ran out of cider!!! Why does every one drink cider just cos the sun comes out?

No, I'm sticking to Duxford and Old Warden in future (and I'll give Shoreham a go later this year).

And, yes, I have Control, next year Oshkosh again to help celebrate Flight's Centenary!

[goatgruff]

As Ghengis said, Farnborough is not for G/A, never has been, never will.

Dave - perhaps you've never been involved in airport development before, but Farnborough is not the place to go.

Civil Engineers build airports - not aerospace companies, as soon as you show a proper interest through the appropriate cahnnels in building an airport, you will be over run with companies trying to sell you airside equipment.

[nosefirsteverytime]

If you ask me, if you wanty to make any type of first contact in this business, magazine ads are the way to look. Seen a full page ad for re-arming equipment in AF Monthly.

Anyways, back to the thred. So basically, as far as what I'll go to next year goes, Farnborough no, Fairford/Oshkosh/Duxford yes!

[DamienB]

The trade stalls have always been too elitist for their own good. When I was working for the RN as a civvy, we were investigating all sorts of training and simulation software and on a brief visit to Farnborough I found this stand which had some tasty simulation and VR kit on display. Couldn't get more than a few words out of the bored chap minding the display - he clearly thought I was just after a few posters or something. I soon got narked with his attitude, and amused myself greatly watching his face drop when I explained who I was, what we were after, and why I wasn't about to waste any more time trying to get any information about his company's products out of him. Cue lots of mouth-flapping fish-like movements from the stuck-up git; and then I walked away and left him to it.

Funnily enough we had some brochures from them in the post several weeks later - far too late to be of any interest to the project we were working on.