The Italian Aerospace Information Web
by Aeromedia - corso Giambone 46/18 - 10135 Torino (Italy)

ILA 2010: The Aerospace Industry Faces an Uncertain Future

ILA Berlin 2010 International Aerospace Exhibition (held at Schönefeld airport from 8th to the 13th of June) confirmed the full extent of the sector overall crisis with few signs of fast recovery.

This edition celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the German air show which has changed venue several times since its inception in Frankfurt in 1909. It claims the title of the oldest air show in the world, over Paris, by three months. It moved to Berlin in 1912 and, following a gap after the rise of Hitler and WW2, the Internationale Luftfahrt-Ausstellung was relaunched in Hannover/Langenhagen from 1957 to 1990. (“ILA: A Brief History”)

After the event, the organizers (BDLI - German Aerospace Industries Association and Messe Berlin GmbH) underlined the value of the show as a business platform with the largest participation in the 100-year history of the ILA, the 1,153 exhibitors from 47 countries (1,127 from 37 countries in 2008). In point of fact the crude numbers could be misleading since the “quality” of the exhibitors and the real dimensions of their presence at ILA must also be taken into consideration.

As an example: global players such as Bombardier, Embraer, Lockheed Martin and Pilatus were substantially absent. Boeing showed the flag with a small stand mainly promoting their Next-Generation Rotorcraft, and the Russian industry put no aircraft at all in the static display area.

EADS itself limited its corporate effort - at their “home” air show - to a large chalet and a stand, both encompassing all the subsidiaries, including Airbus. Many aircraft types produced by the European giant missed the ILA 2010 static or flight display. Stable presence of Airbus commercial models was limited to one A 380 prototype. The first public appearance of the new Airbus A 400M military transport aircraft - claimed as ILA 2010’s major attraction – lasted only two days.

The participation of the Italian first tier firms, after a decade of impressive presence at the main European air show, was substantially limited to a number of scale models hosted in the stands of the Piedmont and Varese Province Small and Medium Enterprises clusters. The proximity of the next Farnborough International air show, in July, did not help.

The only exception to this dramatic cost cutting policy was AgustaWestland’s chalet coupled with the static exhibition of their smallest and biggest helicopters: the single-engine SW-4 (inherited after the recent take over of PZL-Świdnik of Poland) and the AW 101 Combat SAR equipped with flight refuelling probe. REGA of Switzerland also exhibited the first recently delivered AgustaWestland A 109SP "Da Vinci", the Grand New variant for mountain rescue and air-ambulance operations.

Inside Hall 7 - besides the two above-mentioned "Torino Piemonte Aerospace" and "Verese Aeroindustry" regional clusters – the only other Italian entities which took part in ILA 2010, with their own stand, were AIAD (Association of the Italian Aerospace and Defence Industries), Aerea and Northrop Grumman Italia.

However the Italian presence at ILA 2010 was also highlighted by the outstanding flight display performed every day by an Italian Air Force C-27J transport aircraft and by the Pioneer Team’s impeccable aerobatic evolutions. TECNAM, the major Italian ultralight and sport aircraft manufacturer, made an indirect participation through Airborne Technologies of Austria which exhibited its MMA version of the twin-engined P2006 T, promoted as a low cost multi mission aircraft.

Notwithstanding the various defections, ILA 2010 was (dimensionally) larger than ever and presented an impressive range of products and services from every area of the aerospace industry. Approximately 235,000 trade visitors and members of the general public attended the fair (241,000 in 2008). Not secondary to the stable number of spectators was the dominant presence of many interesting historical aircraft, of every type and age, which formed a significant part of the static display area and the backbone of the flight display programme. But essentially, shows like ILA should be mainly devoted to highlighting the performance of the newest available aircraft, not be merely a large inventory of oldtimers promoting an Austrian soft drink.

Just under 300 aircraft, considerably more than at any other of the world’s air shows, were on display on the ground and in the air. Apart the historic items, few aircraft made their world, European or ILA debuts. Those did included the above mentioned A 400M, the new Bell 429 twin-engine helicopter (at its first European appearance), the CH-53GA updated transport helicopter, the DLR-H2 Antares research aircraft, the world’s first manned aircraft that uses a hidrogen fuel cell system to eliminate all CO2 emissions, and very few more.

Between the other interesting aircraft at ILA 2010, the 19-seat Dornier 228NG regional turboprop, resurrected by RUAG of Switzerland, with glass cockpit and five-blade propellers; the Grob G 120TP elementary and basic military trainer, claimed as the smallest aircraft fitted with ejection seats (Martin Baker Mk.19B) and the Dassault Falcon 20E-5 of DLR modified as “ash-hunter” for the recent eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland. Worth of mention was the outstanding flight display of the Hungarian Air Force SAAB JAS 39C Gripen.

For the first time, cooperation between the German Air Force and the military hardware companies in the German aerospace industries was presented at an Air Force / BDLI joint pavilion at the ILA 2010. The various armed forces and military organizational divisions, comprising the Army, Air Force, Navy, Joint Medical Service and Joint Support Service, were strongly represented under the slogan “ILA 2010 – Bundeswehr Meeting Point”. The nearby Static Display Area N. 2 was filled with every type of aircraft now in service with the German Armed Forces.

The central part of the large Static Display Area N. 1 was the major U.S. contribution to ILA 2010, with the imposing and almost inaccessible presence of six transport and bomber aircraft including KC-135R Stratotanker, B-52H Stratofortress, B-1B Lancer, C-17A Globemaster III, C-5A Galaxy and C-130J Super Hercules. Of course they were not taking part in the flight display programme.

During the fair, industry presented many innovative new developments, especially in the field of “The Environment and Eco-Efficient Flight”. For example, the “Path of Innovation” at the ILA 2010 included aircraft from EADS such as Diamond Aircraft DA 42 New Generation are powered by biofuel made from algae, the “Claire” (CLean AIR Engine) concept from MTU, the Engine 3E high compressor from Rolls-Royce, which substantially reduces CO2 emissions and aircraft noise, and the satellite-based earth observation system from DLR, which is capable of producing rapid images of natural disasters.

Compared with the previous ILA, the number of trade visitors increased slightly to 125,000 (120,000 in 2008). Contracts and business agreements with a total value of at least 16.5 billion dollars (approx. 14 bi. €) were signed during the air show. The biggest single order was from the Emirates of Dubai, which agreed to purchase 32 Airbus A 380 mega-body aircraft at a total list price of some 11.5 billion dollars. According to Airbus this agreement is the largest single order ever placed in the history of civil aviation. Airbus alone sold 67 aircraft during the ILA 2010.

It is a well known matter of fact that manufacturers put on hold some order announcements to exploit the media effect of the big air shows. The agreement between Airbus and Emirates had a financial impact that, alone, pushed up the ILA’s overall business value record. But no significant announcements came from the other manufacturers, which is not an encouraging sign for the aerospace industry situation as a whole.

As reported in previous Aeromedia articles, the ILA overall business plan is rapidly evolving, leaving progressively aside the previous, long-standing way to set up an international air show. BtoB events and more than 100 specialized conferences, seminars and workshops, which were attended by 8,000 representatives of every area of business in the aerospace industry, are taking more and more the stage, with minor emphasis for the final products.

Qualitative improvements were made to the specialist sections of the ILA such as the International Suppliers’ Center, the ILA HeliCenter, the ILA Careers Center and the ILA Space Pavilion. It is also worth mentioning the “Parliamentarians’ Day” with 285 participants from all over Europe. The presence of more than 130 high-ranking delegations from all over the world was also recorded at ILA 2010.

The number of exhibitors at the International Suppliers’ Center increased by 60 per cent (265 exhibitors from 22 countries). One of the major events was the newly introduced International Buyers’ Day at which exhibitors from the ISC met with over 50 leading buyers from the main systems manufacturers in a total of 435 individually organized discussions.

ILA 2010 was the last Berlin Air Show set up in the old “Interflug area” in the Southern side of the Schönefeld airport. In this location it grew from 1992 onwards, with a biennial cadence. At the moment, the current ILA showground is surrounded by building sites both for road development and the setting up of the new, huge terminal area of the future Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI). Although works maintain a fast pace, the air traffic downturn makes the BBI opening at the planned date (October 30, 2011) less urgent, with the simultaneous closing of Berlin/Tegel. A still to be decided delay could be easily justified by impending “new European security requirements” forcing a redesign of the unfinished terminals with twice the space devoted to “security procedures”.

In any case, as already noted during the previous editions, the ILA daily flight display – stretching from 10.30 AM to 05.30 PM – is more and more affecting the commercial traffic at Schönefeld. The next ILA will take place (from 12th to the 17th of June, 2012) on a new exhibition site near the town of Selchow, on the Western part of the future BBI Airport (Schönefeld-West). A direct taxiway will connect the display area to the new BBI runways. The question mark is how a big air show will be able to effectively share its peculiar activity together with the air traffic of a major international airport.

Thanks to the collaboration of Air Dolomiti/Lufthansa

In the picture: Past, present and future at ILA Berlin 2010. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, June 2010)