A total of 24,206 registrants were on hand, representing a five per cent increase over the 2009 figure, and 1,083 exhibitors packed the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta at the sixty-third NBAA convention

The National Business Aviation Association’s (NBAA) annual meeting rotates among the few host cities with halls large enough to host the fourth largest American trade show. The 2010 edition of the show set up a camp in Atlanta, Georgia, after a gap of three years. Unlike last year’s gloom-infested NBAA convention, the October 2010 gathering was filled with hope that the worst of business aviation’s depression was gone, and the attendance was strong.

A total of 24,206 registrants were on hand, representing a five per cent increase over the 2009 figure, and 1,083 exhibitors packed the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. The static display at Dekalb-Peachtree airport was jammed with 93 aircraft; it was all that could be accommodated, resulting in a waiting list for cancellations. As we said, the mood was upbeat, even though sales were still sparse.

Both Hawker Beechcraft Corporation and Cessna Aircraft returned to the exhibit hall, after reducing their presence to static displays at the airport last year. Builders of large, longrange equipment, such as Gulfstream, Embraer, Dassault, Bombardier, Boeing and Airbus, exhibited lavishly, benefiting from their continued strong sales. Boeing announced that it will deliver no less than eight 747-8I wide body business jets to completion centres in just over one year, starting late 2011.

News from the floor

Piper Aircraft introduced an upgradation of its developmental PA-47 PiperJet, the first single-engine business jet likely to be in the market. Now slated to deliver early in 2014, the renamed Altaire has abandoned the Malibu-based fuselage of the prototype to enable a wider, taller and longer cabin to be offered, with a three-foot wide entrance door, an enlarged wing and a reshaped tail. The high-mounted Williams FJ44-3A engine requires only Williams International’s EXACT passive thrust vectoring for proper trim and will produce a top cruise speed of 360 knots, with a ceiling of 35,000 feet. The expected maximum range is 1,300 nautical miles. Rather than the sidestick controls of the Physical Optics Corporation (POC) aircraft, the Altaire will feature conventional control yokes and a stickpusher stall barrier system. Piper is pointedly targeting the Cessna Citation Mustang as the PiperJet’s main competition.

Daher Socata is evaluating the former Grob SPn twin-engine VLJ to possibly supplement its TMB 850 Very Fast Turboprop. Meanwhile, Diamond Aircraft’s single-engine D-Jet is under development, along with the Cirrus SF50 Vision. On the other hand, Eclipse was at the show touting its ability to deliver an already-certified Total Eclipse 500 twin-jet VLJ. On the opening day, Eclipse proudly announced an investment by Sikorsky Aircraft in its company, which promises support capability as well as money. Honda Aircraft’s displays, both in the exhibit hall and under roof at the airport, showcased the company’s developmental aircraft and engine quite well. A conforming test model of the HondaJet was ready to fly at NBAA time and a target of Q3 2012 is set for certification.

Further up the ladder, Bombardier showed the mockup of its forthcoming LearJet 85 composite-airframe mid-size jet, and rocked the show with announcement of not one, but two, new members of the large-cabin Global series, a stretched-fuselage Global 7000 and 8000 based on the successful Global XRS. The aircraft were shown only as full-size rear-projection images on a huge screen at the static display. The Global 7000, 11 feet longer than the XRS, is expected to be available in 2016, offering a 7,300 nm range, with the two-foot longer, 7,900 nm range 8,000 coming in 2017.