DeeDee Doke/LONDON
Money talked loudly at Farnborough International 2000, and big orders created big news - more than $50 billion in sales and commitments - for the aerospace industry. Two of the show's biggest successes - the Airbus A3XX ultra-large airliner, with list price commitments valued at $4.8 billion and the Airbus Military Company's A400M transport aircraft, with commitments of $17 billion - were present only as models, posters and in spirit, but other aircraft made their Farnborough debuts.
Unsurprisingly, the big news was Airbus and Boeing's head-to-head matches. This year, the two aircraft manufacturing giants competed in three separate markets: airliners, military transport (Boeing's C-17 versus AMC's A400M) and corporate jets (the Boeing Business Jet versus the A319CJ).
Newcomers to the scene included, (clockwise, from main photo, right), two entries to the regional jet market, the Bombardier 70-seat CRJ700 in Brit Air livery, Embraer's 44-seat ERJ 140, the Russian Sukhoi Su-32 strike bomber, the ATR 72-500, Boeing's 68-seat ATR 72-500 turboprop and F/A-18F Super Hornet, the DA 40-80 Diamond Star general aviation aircraft and Sikorsky's S-92 multirole helicopter.
Source: Flight International