Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

All the chat about the bi-annual spectacular
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DerekF
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by DerekF »

It may not be the show it once was but judging by what I saw on Tuesday, rumours of its demise are rather over-exaggerated. Yes, the displays are high and far away but that isn't a recent thing - it's been like that for a while. There was a decent two and a half hour display of a variety of aircraft with few gaps.
There used to be a lot more aircraft and the airfield was used for the static park as well. All the flying aircraft got towed to the far side. Now, it's a slick operation, pushing aeroplanes around flying them, pushing back. All while keeping the airfield open.
The static has always been hopeless for photography with aircraft crammed in with flags, banners, info displays etc. The pushing back of the crowd line made little or no difference, certainly not on a trade day. Public days might be different though. Like others we always went on the Friday public day when the show was in September and there was always a chance that the star items had already gone. Nothing new either. Annoying, yes but certainly not new.

FERG
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by FERG »

Anyone any explanation as to why an F-35 did not fly today..... Massively disappointing for many of the folks today...

Stagger2
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Stagger2 »

Pre-advised rest-days on Weds' 13th & Thurs' 14th. Due to attend 14:35 Fri & Sat/Sunday times Tba. Rumours today linked F-35 Pilots & Bae Systems 'Tarnish 5' with a 'Jolly' for an Aviation related lunch in London? :whistle:
After the mass exodus of performers & quality this morning, I really do have concerns about a public riot at the weekend!

FERG
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by FERG »

When you think of the cost/effort of getting the three B jets over here, not to mention all the pre-arrival and post arrival media coverage, you'd think that actually they would prioritise getting one jet on stage every day this week?

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cw318is
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by cw318is »

Well today I went with my trade ticket, don't think I'll be going again. Static is quite thin on the ground with a stupid fence layout with lots of dead ends and compounds. To get in the compounds you have to go through the chalets, to get in the chalet you must be invited.... Saab, P&W and Boeing all had a "public" chalet in addition. The Boeing one was quite good for 20 minutes but that's about it.

Hall layout makes no sense either. Flying display good for the big stuff but that's about it. Best views are definitely blocked by the chalets.

Corporate promotional tat very poor, even pens and stickers.

Parking wasn't too bad with quite an efficient Park and ride service. Signposted route back to the M3 not so good.

IMO Ebace and Paris offer so much more.
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Dan O'Hagan
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Dan O'Hagan »

Got today's live stream on. The Electra was probably the poorest airshow display I have ever seen.

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lynothehammer
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by lynothehammer »

I actually thought the static this year on Tuesday trade day was one of the best in years, although not set up particularly well but whats new there ?

The flying display was decent and i definitely came back pleased with what i'd seen after writing it off, whilst it's not a RIAT seeing the big airliners being thrown about is something i'll never tire of.

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DerekF
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by DerekF »

I agree. There seemed to be more aircraft than previous years, poorly laid out but that's nothing new. The flying display was short as is usual on a trade day but full of variety and seemed to no further away than normal. Apart from the F-35 hover.....
The food outlet seemed a little more numerous than previous years but one thing I noticed, especially on a trade day was that the toilets were in a shocking state.

From what I saw and experienced, reports of the death of Farnborough Air show are greatly exaggerated, as they say.

Steve Thomson
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Steve Thomson »

Can anyone remember the opening times for the trade days in 2012? Just looking through some old photos and I noticed I was shooting the static with no fences at 07.40 !

neil_davidson2
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by neil_davidson2 »

We actually enjoyed our day out on Saturday, but suspect that may have had something to do with setting expectations so low in advance that they'd have had to have tried exceptionally hard to have been worse than expected.

The park and ride worked ok for us; we drove straight in and parked up by 8.10, didn't exactly rush things and caught a bus after a five minute wait at the stop. Joined the queue to get in just as the gate staff decided to open up early and were in the show ground by ten to nine. And on the way back out after the show we wandered out at about half past six and only had to wait for a few minutes before the bus turned up.

The static layout was ok, but cluttered as expected and by about eleven the place was starting to heave making photography virtually impossible.

The flying display again was ok and after last week's jet fest was varied enough. The view from the back of the runway enclosure stand was good enough in most cases although one or two displays were definitely a long way away.

It did however have the feel more of a village fete than of a premier international airshow, and looking back at it objectively it wasn't exactly value for money when compared to other offerings.

Will we go back? Maybe - but it'll depend on what's due to be flying especially if it's this close to RIAT again.

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Ruislip Rustler
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Ruislip Rustler »

is there some reason why like Cosford the commentators are put away in the back and have to look at the screens to see what's going on?!


The commentators are located on the crowdline at show centre next to the cameras that provided you with an hour and a half's-worth of entertainment. Their glass house doesn't, however, have a glass roof to see the displays flying at the upper extremes of Farnborough's land-grab of 8,000ft of airspace.

Its hard to tell how close the display was based on the video stream but hopefully as suggested not as far away as people were worried about


TV cameras do have the ability to zoom quite a bit further than most people's longest lens. How many display pics are on the forum from the show? That might give you a clue as to what those who attended actually had to put up with.
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effects
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by effects »

cw318is wrote:Well today I went with my trade ticket, don't think I'll be going again. Static is quite thin on the ground with a stupid fence layout with lots of dead ends and compounds. To get in the compounds you have to go through the chalets, to get in the chalet you must be invited.... Saab, P&W and Boeing all had a "public" chalet in addition. The Boeing one was quite good for 20 minutes but that's about it.

Hall layout makes no sense either. Flying display good for the big stuff but that's about it. Best views are definitely blocked by the chalets.

Corporate promotional tat very poor, even pens and stickers.

Parking wasn't too bad with quite an efficient Park and ride service. Signposted route back to the M3 not so good.

IMO Ebace and Paris offer so much more.

I will have to take issue with your corporate tat, models from Qatar-777,787 & A380, Embraer-E190, KC390, Volga -747 & 124 , Swiss Army knife (victorinox) from Pilatus. Plus numerous memory sticks, etc and a nice challenge coin from Pratt and Whitney. Roll on 2018!
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Best Lasham
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Best Lasham »

An amusing snippet from the FIA 'round up' email:

Show highlights and Farnborough Firsts include the Bombardier C-series, Aribus neo, Boeing 787Max, Embraer who brought three aircraft, Hondajet, Dornier Dart-450 and of course the Lockheed Martin F-35.



farnboroughrob
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by farnboroughrob »

Best Lasham wrote:An amusing snippet from the FIA 'round up' email:

Show highlights and Farnborough Firsts include the Bombardier C-series, Aribus neo, Boeing 787Max, Embraer who brought three aircraft, Hondajet, Dornier Dart-450 and of course the Lockheed Martin F-35.



Who ever wrote that needs wikipedia! Dornier Dart 450 indeed, its made by Diamond, Airbus didn't bring a NEO, just a 2013 A320S, 737max not 787MAX! Probably written by some twenty year old just out of a media studies course!

cg_341
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by cg_341 »

I'd imagine some 20-year-old straight out of a media studies course would have done better than that. In my experience, the worst offenders when it comes to writing releases are people that have been there a long time, and therefore think their work doesn't need checking!

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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Aviation94 »


Show highlights and Farnborough Firsts include the Bombardier C-series, Aribus neo, Boeing 787Max, Embraer who brought three aircraft, Hondajet, Dornier Dart-450 and of course the Lockheed Martin F-35.





What the hell is an ARIBUS? :wall:
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john001
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by john001 »

Oh for the days of Raymond Baxter and Farnborough Live on TV...

farnboroughrob
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by farnboroughrob »

john001 wrote:Oh for the days of Raymond Baxter and Farnborough Live on TV...

Indeed, Farnborough is a bit like a faded Victorian seaside resort trying to reinvent its self in a totally different era.At least one of the Black sheds is still standing, along with A shed built c1939. Its about the only thing left from those Halcyon days.

Coldwar77
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Coldwar77 »

Having read all the comments on here and attended this years show on a trade day and a public day, I have to say that it was probably the worst one I have ever been to.

Yes, I appreciate that the number of new aircraft is less than the good old days, and the choice of in service aircraft is less, but Farnborough is a trade show so as well as selling aircraft and equipment it should be trying to encourage people to become future aviators, engineers and designers.

The trade day I attended was exactly what I expected it to be, badly placed aircraft, fences and displays, pandering to anyone with a VIP or special pass, the same as it always has been, but the public day! Oh my, what happened? It's as though there are two separate airshows with the second 'public' show being allowed to use the left overs and hoping that the folks that attend are happy just to see 'planes'.

I am a huge fan of all types of aircraft, but Farnborough should not be showing old / classic aircraft in the same way that Duxford shouldn't have a biz jet section!

I don't usually complain about shows as I know first hand how difficult they are to arrange, but I think that the time is approaching when the organisers may have to think about doing something different, what that is I have no idea, but with the cost of airshows getting stupidly expensive, less aircraft turning up, more restrictions on displays and the good old weather it seems like the time is approaching that airshows may all but die out, I hope not as I would never want to be in the situation of Germany, only having one major show every two years.

James Kebble
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by James Kebble »

it not worth considering a move back to September?

Dragon Rapide
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Dragon Rapide »

Whatever prompted the move to July? If I did once know it's now long forgotten....
Listen to that Gipsy music.....

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FarnboroJohn
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by FarnboroJohn »

Dragon Rapide wrote:Whatever prompted the move to July? If I did once know it's now long forgotten....


Allegedly it was to get better weather. :lmao:

John

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aviodromefriend
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by aviodromefriend »

Dragon Rapide wrote:Whatever prompted the move to July? If I did once know it's now long forgotten....
Exhibitors (especially the non Europeans) didn't want to have to travel twice to Europe in such a short timeframe after Fairford. So they went to consecutive weeks, so they only have to come once.
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patrouille2001
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by patrouille2001 »

I have been attending Every Farnborough since 1990 and agree it is nothing like it used to be, however I am thankful I am still able to go since the amount of air shows we have lost since 1990 is staggering.

I have to travel from Newcastle Upon Tyne, which is a long way considering the amount of shows still going in the Southern part of the Country. Yes I would like to be able to go mid week to Farnborough and see some of aircraft before they depart before the weekend such as the 737 and 787 and have e mailed Farnborough without a reply.

Every other year I attend Paris air Show and at weekends, the trade halls all remain open, which is why I cannot understand why Farnborough close theirs.

I do wonder if is time amalgamate with RIAT and combine the 2 shows into one long week of Aviation, where their is no housing estate being built which hampers the airspace and restrictions associated with Farnborough.

Paul :smile:

Dragon Rapide
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Re: Farnborough - a shadow of its former self?

Post by Dragon Rapide »

aviodromefriend wrote:
Dragon Rapide wrote:Whatever prompted the move to July? If I did once know it's now long forgotten....
Exhibitors (especially the non Europeans) didn't want to have to travel twice to Europe in such a short timeframe after Fairford. So they went to consecutive weeks, so they only have to come once.


That surprises me since Farnborough has always been predominantly a trade show with the majority of exhibitors having no interest in nor attending IAT or later RIAT, so I do not see why there was a clash of interest. I can just about accept that the hope of better weather might have been a reason as someone has suggested although September used to have a reputation for quiet anticyclone conditions....
Listen to that Gipsy music.....

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