Andrew Douse
Marketing teams must have been working overtime in their company think-tanks before coming to Dubai '97.
As usual, there's a weighty supply of attention-grabbing gimmicks tempting visitors onto the stands.
There are 'Indians in them thar hills' at Lockheed Martin- an Apache to be precise, popping up over a craggy mountain to 'shoot' inquisitive visitors.
At previous air shows the Lockheed stand has been coloured black, but in Dubai the company has decided to break with tradition.
"We've injected red into the colour scheme and brought in a model of the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, which rises up from behind a mountain just like the real thing," says company spokesman Doug Oliver.
"It's different and it certainly makes visitors stop at the stand."
There's wall-to-wall water at Lufthansa Technik, which is making use of Dubai's most precious commodity to draw visitors.
The German company is pumping water down the glass walls of its huge stand, which took four days to create.
"Water is valuable and respected in Dubai - two qualities that we wanted to reflect in the stand and our company," says Renate Sockolowski. "We think the end result looks very striking."
Aeromaritime decided to drop an Allison 250 engine on Malta to draw attention to its stand.
The event was a mock-up of course - the engine was attached to a parachute and positioned above a huge map of the country.
Aeromaritime senior customer support engineer Doke Strijbosch says: "Our company, which is based in Malta, only maintains the Allison 250 engine.
"The message we wanted to put across to potential customers was simple - drop your engine off with us."
Stand designer Edward Zammit from Malta-based Casapinta Design Group says: "The display gets straight to the point, delivering one message that potential customers will take away with them."
Source: Flight Daily News
