Among the line-up of speakers invited to join NBAA president Ed Bolen in the opening ceremony was Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists (IAM).
Buffenbarger declared that he had been trying, since the election of Barack Obama as US president in September last year, to persuade him to visit the nation's home of business aircraft manufacturing, Wichita, to witness the reality of the industry's contribution to the US economy.
Obama's initial reaction to business aviation had appeared to reflect the national recoil at the apparently casual use of corporate aircraft by the leaders of the major US motor manufacturers when they travelled from Detroit to Washington to plead for a state bail-out for their companies.
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Now, Buffenbarger seems to believe that White House resistance to the idea of a Wichita visit may be weakening, but that it is not yet in the bag. He wants the statement that "business aviation is vital to America's economic recovery" included in January's State of the Union presidential address.
Meanwhile, the IAM leader counsels both the management and labour sides of the industry that the normal adversarial negotiating system needs to be suspended in the current situation, and both parties have to work together as a team. He says that 30,000 IAM employees have been made redundant in the past year, and survival is what is at stake.
Rich Karlgaard, Forbes magazine publisher was invited as a business aircraft user and one who can put the economic situation in context. He said the recession has been caused by the fact that "no-one knew what the rules were any more".
He draws close parallels with the 1973-74 recession, and remarked: "When the tide goes out you find out who has been swimming without clothes."
On the optimistic side, he notes that times are not bad for everyone, citing China, Australia, Brazil and India as examples that buck the trend. He also pointed out that periods of relative economic stagnation have normally also been periods of dramatic innovation.
US Federal Aviation Administration administrator Randy Babbitt opened his address with an appeal for business aviation operators to start closed-loop safety management systems in their companies, to build the data that will enable them to identify internal problems before they cause an incident. He also called for individuals to maintain professional standards at all times including "when no-one is watching".
The retired golf master, Arnold Palmer, whom the NBAA has put at the heart of its new "No plane, no gain" advertising campaign to rework the public perception of the sector, did not need to say much, because he is a US icon and he walks the business aviation walk. Now owner of the seventh business jet in his long career, he has built an international business out of a small US town not served by commercial airlines.
Source: Flight International
