The 2015 51st Paris Air Show focusses on green issues, but again has notable absentees

The Paris Air Show is without doubt the premiere event in the commercial air industry’s calendar, attracting people, businesses and journalists from all four corners of the globe. Held every two years, in 2013 the show attracted over 315,000 visitors, 2,215 exhibitors and records indicate that over US$150bn worth of orders were announced that year. The show has come a very long way since its inauguration in 1909, a show which was, for the first time, devoted solely to ‘Ariel Locomotion’, having previously been a section of the Paris Motor Show up until 1908. The event was a huge success, attracting over 100,000 visitors and 380 exhibitors at the Grand Palais where it was held up until 1953, when it then relocated to its current location at le Bourget. Originally held on an annual basis, after interruption during the First World War it was decided to hold the show on a biennial basis, and after further interruption during the Second World War, aerial displays then took place at Orly airport before the 1953 move to le Bourget.
Unlike the world’s largest air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA which attracts crowds of over half a million and displays of over 12,000 aircraft, the Parish Air Show is an event which concentrates wholly on the commercial and military aspects of the aviation and aerospace industry. While in the 1970’s the UK Farnborough Air Show was seen as the world’s foremost commercial air show, that has now been superseded by this one held in Paris, with the two other major events on the calendar being the Farnborough International Air Show and ILA Berlin Air Show, both being held next in 2016. Though in 2013 over 150 aircraft were on display, this year numbers have been reduced to just over 100. As a predominantly commercial event, the show is not fully open to the general public, with Monday through to Thursday this year reserved totally for commercial and business attendees. From Friday through to Sunday access is then permitted to members of the public, including children.
In 2013 the Paris Air Show received the ISO 12021 eco-friendly label, only the third international event to do so, so perhaps it is fitting that the special focus of this year’s show will be on green issues, as well as the traditional sales war held between Airbus and Boeing. Aircraft making their debut at this year’s show include new versions of the prototype all-electric plane Airbus, the E-Fan, and its cleaner, quieter civilian helicopter, the H160. These two craft reflect the increase on focussing on green innovation. The timing of this theme is not accidental as subsequent to the show, the same venue will be playing host to the global climate conference, with the air industry already being committed to becoming carbon-neutral by 2020. Ever-increasing fuel prices are a motivating factor in aircraft design, and Boeing has promised that the 737 MAX, its next mid-range carrier, will provide 20-percent fuel savings, allowing it to have already achieved in excess of 2,700 orders despite the fact the plane will not be officially unveiled until next year. However the Airbus A320neo, which offers a 15 percent fuel consumption reduction, has already racked up a record 3,800 pre-orders well before the first plane has come close to leaving the production line.
Exhibitors from the engine and nacelle production side include Rolls-Royce from the UK, Pratt & Whitney from the USA, AVL from France, AENCOM from Italy and IHI Corporation, Japan. Major aircraft fuselage manufacturers in attendance apart from Airbus and Boeing will include Bombardier, ATR, Embraer, Sukhoi and Dassault from the civil aircraft sector. From these manufacturers, debuts should be seen from the two variants of Bombardier’s CSeries, a first Paris flying display from the Airbus A350 and hopefully a first appearance in the skies from Dassault’s latest flagship business jet, the Falcon 8X. Though the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightening ll will be absent this year from the flying display line up, unlike 2013 which saw a lack of a US military presence, this year the US Air Force will have a contingency of up to a dozen static displays present. However there are several other notable absentees from this year’s show, including Sweden’s Saab. Nor is UK-based BAE Systems attending as they seem to be following the lead taken by the U.S. Northrop Grumman group which chose to stop appearing at the Le Bourget show in 2011. “In line with our practice of regularly reviewing our presence at international events and exhibitions, BAE Systems has decided it will not be attending the 2015 Paris Air Show,” said a company spokesperson for BAE Systems. The 2015 Paris Air Show runs from Monday the 15th June to Sunday the 21st June.