The high point on the global aviation industry scene in the recent past was the world famous biennial airshow that was held from July 14 to 20 this year at Farnborough, a suburban airfield around 30 km from London. With the first airshow at Farnborough held in 1948, this event of global repute has been staged since then with unfailing regularity every two years. As has been the pattern, this year too, the airshow was patronised by all the global aerospace majors covering the regimes of both civil and military aviation. The Farnborough International Airshow is well known for facilitating business opportunities for the global aerospace industry. As one of the world’s largest exhibitions and air displays, the event provides a wealth of dedicated and focused business platforms. This year the airshow registered extraordinary levels of business with orders and commitments achieving a new record of $201 billion, reflecting the revival and overall buoyancy of the global aerospace industry.

While the Farnborough Airshow celebrated 100 years of aviation featuring aircraft from every decade of the last century, there was some disappointment also as the much anticipated air display by the F-35B Lightning II was cancelled on account of safety concerns generated by an episode of fire on an F-35B aircraft in the US prior to the airshow. This issue of SP’s Aviation carries detailed reports on the Farnborough Airshow by R. Chandrakanth, representative of SP Guide Publications.

In the wake of the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government coming to power in the last week of May this year, there have been a number events that can have a profound impact on the aerospace and defence industry in India. The decision of the new government to enhance the limit of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian defence industry from 26 to 49 per cent is expected to provide a boost to the growth of the indigenous industry. However, Pratyush Kumar, President Boeing India, feels otherwise and says that the new level of FDI may not make a real difference. He recommends that for the upper limit of FDI ought to be enhanced to 51 per cent to enable foreign investors to establish some control over their investments. But another school of thought holds that the Indian aerospace industry in the private sector apart from higher levels of FDI, will need a large measure of support from the government to be able to stand on their own feet and make a meaningful contribution to the national effort in this regime.

Other events of significance post national elections were visit by the Secretary of State John Kerry, the first high ranking functionary from the United States to land in Delhi. John Kerry’s interaction in Delhi was followed by a visit by the Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. The common thread in the visits by both the senior functionaries in the US Government was an overwhelming desire to revitalise the sagging relationship between the two largest democracies in the world. Hopefully, the Defense Secretary’s visit will provide the required impetus for the finalisation of contracts pertaining to the Apache attack helicopters as well as for the Chinook heavy-lift helicopters that have been in the pipeline for some time now.

Strangely enough, in the last few months, as many as four airliners have fallen out of the sky in quick succession. Even while the Malaysian Airlines was trying to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance without a trace of their flight MH-370, a Boeing 777, MH-17, another Boeing 777, was lost over Ukraine and is believed to have been shot down over Ukraine. A report in this issue describes the episode as “Aerial Terrorism”. While it may take some time and effort to develop foolproof devices to defeat surface-to-air missiles, for the time being it is best to avoid flying over zones of conflict in the interest of air safety.

All these and more apart from the regular features in this issue. Welcome aboard!