The Hindu Business Line : Airbus-380 soars in style at Paris Air Show

IF THERE were record crowds at the Paris Air Show, especially on the last three days when the exhibition was open to the public, it was because of one aircraft — the Airbus-380.

As many as 4,80,000 people visited Le Bourget, outside Paris, where for a week, beginning June 13, the world's aviation industry had gathered to showcase its latest.

Some 3,00,000 people visited the show last year; the previous record was in 2001 with 4,31,000 visitors.

The first four days of the exhibition, open only to professionals, attracted 1,57,500 visitors to displays by over 1,900 exhibitors from 41 countries.

As an AFP report quoted Mr Charles Edelstenne, President of GIFAS, which organises the event, the air show was "very, very big", striking highs in terms of both visitors and orders.

On display were flying machines from the super-jumbos to unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) drones. But the showpiece of the 46th edition of the biennial show was the A380, the largest airliner, which made its public debut at the show and flew every day.

Any doubts about the saleability of the aircraft were laid to rest with the Airbus winning a number of orders. Indeed, in the rush for orders, Airbus, despite a hesitant start, came out ahead of Boeing.

And perhaps to suggest this, the A380, parked next to the Boeing 747 and 777 and the slightly smaller McDonnell Douglas DC-10, dwarfed all three.

Not to be wholly outdone, Boeing unveiled its new 777-200LR Worldliner — the world's longest-range passenger plane, capable of connecting virtually any two major cities around the globe.

In the wings is its new 787 Dreamliner that is built largely of composite materials to save on fuel and maintenance costs, giving some relief to airlines plagued with soaring fuel bills.

The boom in the low-cost, regional and executive markets saw Embraer, Gulfstream, ATR and Bomardier pitted against one another. In this class, major debuts were made by Dassault's Falcon7X and the Embraer 195, the largest of E-Jet line of single-aisle aeroplanes. This segment is to see more action with the engine tests of Sukhoi's Russian Regional Jet set for later this year.

There was some interest in supersonic flight with a French-Japanese effort to develop a `Super-Concorde'.

Another area that attracted much interest was the UAV or the drone. Beyond military reconnaissance and operations, the UAVs are finding roles in police and border patrol, maritime safety and environmental monitoring. The smallest UAV on show was the palm-size Libellule, or Dragonfly, developed by an independent French laboratory, Tecknisolar-SENI.

Of course, there was significant activity in the military section with the French Rafale programme getting a thrust. On display were the French Mirage 2000, the Eurofighter Typhoon on which the progress has been somewhat slow, the Swedish Gripen fighter and the American F-18, besides a host of jet trainers.

The air show was significant for the shift to Asia, especially India, which was a major buyer, including of the A-380. On the other side, HAL's Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter and Intermediate Jet Trainer came in for considerable favourable attention.

By the response at Le Bourget, the civil aviation industry may at long last be out of the woods, and set for a take-off.

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