Despite a last-minute change in venue to Orlando and a narrow escape from a second hurricane, the NBAA is on track for a record show
Show organisers and exhibit managers breathed a sigh of relief last week after Hurricane Wilma left southern Florida battered and soaked, but spared the centre of the Sunshine State – and the convention and vacation mecca of Orlando.
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) must have wondered what the weather had against it, as it watched Wilma head towards Florida just two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, forcing the relocation of its 58th annual meeting and convention from New Orleans to Orlando.
The 11th-hour move to Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, one of only two other locations in the USA able to accommodate an exhibition as big as NBAA, also brought the show forward by a week, to 9-11 November, but has not dampened enthusiasm for the event.
As of 24 October, almost 1,100 exhibitors had booked booth space, a 5% increase over last year’s show, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 110 aircraft had been registered for the static display, already 30% up on last year’s total, and by the time the show opens up to 150 aircraft are expected to be on exhibit at the Showalter Flying Service facility at Orlando Executive airport.
The NBAA expects the Orlando show to draw more than 30,000 attendees, just short of 2004’s record of over 31,000, drawn by the resurgence of the business-aviation industry after the economic slump that followed 9/11. With third-quarter results now coming in, business aircraft manufacturers are reporting higher deliveries, strong orders, and growing backlogs. Several new product announcements, mostly derivative aircraft, are expected at the show.
Business challenge
The future is not without challenges, and the NBAA in its role as a lobbyist finds itself fighting for the business aviation community on a number of fronts including safety awareness, security requirements, noise restrictions, fuel taxation and the potential threat of airspace user fees. But these issues, however vital to the industry’s health, will have to fight for headline space with news from manufacturers making the most of the market’s resurgence.
Aircraft making their NBAA debuts include Bombardier’s Learjet 40XR light jet, Cessna’s entry-level Citation Mustang, Dassault’s ultra-long-range Falcon 7X, the Eclipse 500 very light jet, Gulfstream’s mid-size G150, Piaggio’s turboprop Avanti II and Raytheon’s Beechcraft King Air C90GT turboprop, Premier IA light jet and mid-size Hawker 800XPi.
Breaking with tradition, and perhaps setting a new trend, Bombardier will centre its NBAA presence on a chalet at the static display, although it will have a Learjet-themed exhibit in the convention centre. Cessna, like Bombardier, is expected to make a derivative-aircraft announcement as well as displaying the first production Mustang and the Citation CJ1+ and CJ2+ light jets introduced at last year’s NBAA and certificated earlier this year.
Dassault is bringing the third 7X, which joined the flight test programme early in September, but an announcement on whether the French manufacturer will develop a smaller, super mid-size Falcon is now not expected before early next year.
Gulfstream will display the second G150, now in flight test at Israel Aircraft Industries, and has “things to announce”, it says. The company is known to be studying an aircraft larger than its super mid-size G200, as well as being in the early stages of designing a supersonic business jet. Gulfstream says its mobile supersonic boom laboratory will be in the static display.
Light and very light
This is the first NBAA since Embraer announced plans to become a major player in business aviation, launching development of a very light jet and light jet. The names of these aircraft, and risk-sharing partners in their development, will be announced at the show, where the Brazilian manufacturer will unveil a mockup of the light jet. Eclipse Aviation, meanwhile, is bringing its second “beta test” Eclipse 500, N506EA, to Orlando as part of a US sales tour.
Piaggio Aero Industries received European certification for the updated Avanti II (flight test, P70-74) in October, and will exhibit the first production aircraft in Orlando. Raytheon, meanwhile, received US certification for the improved Premier IA on the eve of the show. Other Beechcraft making their debut will be the increased-power King Air C90GT, deliveries of which begin in December, and the piston-powered Baron G35 and Bonanza G36 with new Garmin G1000 integrated flightdecks. Raytheon says it has announcements planned for the show.
The choice of US National Transportation Safety Board chairman designate Ellen Engleman Connors as keynote speaker at the NBAA 2005 opening general session underlines how important the issue of business aviation safety has become (safety review, P86-89). After a spate of icing-related accidents, NBAA joined forces with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and National Air Transportation Association in October to launch an icing-awareness safety programme. And on the eve of the show, after a series of accidents that raised concerns about the operational control of chartered aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration published policy guidance on wet leases, clarifying permissible charter management arrangements.
Security first
NBAA 2005 comes less than a month after the historic – but limited – reopening of Washington DC’s Reagan National airport to corporate and charter flights, ending a four-year ban on general aviation imposed after 9/11. But security restrictions on airport and airspace access continue to be an issue for the business-aviation industry. There are signs of progress, including a new homeland security spending bill that encourages the Transportation Security Agency to expand the access certificate programme developed jointly with the NBAA.
Whatever challenges the business aviation community might face - and those the show organisers surely faced in relocating the event at the last minute – this year’s NBAA is certain to reflect the optimism of an industry seeing production, deliveries, orders and backlogs return to levels enjoyed before 9/11 took its toll.
GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International