Jetrader - Fall 2014 - 17

To view more photos from the airshow, chalet
and reception, visit www.istat.org and click
the link under ISTAT News on the home page.

Airbus' chalet: The high and mighty fortress.

A350 in hybrid Qatar/Airbus customer.

Explaining 787 flight controls to a financier.

Visitors make their way to and from the
aircraft displays.

A look inside the 787-9 test aircraft.

don't have the luxury of a private helicopter, business jet or chauffeured limousine,
getting to the show was relatively easy and
comfortable. Southwest Trains once again
offered a few Farnborough specials-fast,
direct trains between London's Waterloo
station and Farnborough Main station. From
there, a fleet of traditional British doubledecker buses maintained a high-frequency
service to the show ground. Entering the
event, the unavoidable security check was
well-organized and didn't take as long as
at some of the other major international
airshows. Once past security, visitors were
welcomed by a sea of friendly and cheerful
boys and girls in bright, colorful outfits,
handing out special FIA 2014 editions of
the various aerospace publications with
covers featuring the smiling faces of the
likes of Steve Udvar-Hazy, John Leahy or

Tony Fernandes signing another multibillion dollar deal.
As a minor dissonant, the defense
community was likely disappointed by
the absence of the Lockheed-Martin F-35
Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, due
to widely reported engine troubles. The
commercial crowd had to miss the new
Bombardier CSeries for similar reasons.
While a setback for the Canadian manufacturer from a publicity point of view,
it may not be all bad. Most of this year's
attention was devoted to the much bigger, new twin-aisle jets anyhow: the Airbus
A350-900 and the Boeing 787-9. Not only
could both types be admired on the static
display, they could also be seen in the air.
What else was in the static display area?
Qatar Airways had an A320 with sharklets
in the static park, next to their new Boeing

787-8. Unfortunately, the Middle East airline couldn't play "big, bigger, biggest"
because Airbus hadn't finished its A380
in time, at least that was what Qatar's allmighty CEO Akbar Al Baker claimed. The
boys from Toulouse were not to be defeated
by this. Airbus flew in F-WWOW, one of
the original A380 prototypes, to claim the
title of the biggest aircraft of the show.
Next to the A380 stood a mostly white
A319 corporate jet, the military A400M,
plus a few experimental electric planes
in the general aviation class. While not
as big as the A380, the real showstopper
for Airbus was, without a doubt, the new
A350-900 in a hybrid Airbus/Qatar livery
with a black, Zorro-like mask design around
the cockpit windows.
Boeing had left its heavyweight 747-8 in
Seattle to make room for the all-new 787-9.
Sporting the beautiful blue Boeing factory
livery, 787-9 "ZB-001" was a head turner,
even in the static show park. Without a 737
MAX or A320neo in the air yet, the next
category by size was the large regional
jets. A pair of Superjet 100s were on display, featuring the blue Interjet Mexico
livery and the very colorful livery of Russia's
UTair. Embraer displayed a secondhand
ERJ-135 from its Asset Management ECC
Jetrader  *  Fall 2014 17
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Jetrader - Fall 2014

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