With the Singapore Air Show earlier this year being a sales flop, Brexit storm clouds, the world on the brink of a global trade war and UK political chaos (the Foreign Secretary having resigned on 9 July with Defence Procurement Minister Guto Bebb following suit on 17 July) - expectations were low that this year's exhibition would end up being a damp squib. While it is true that the first day saw show news competing with other headlines from the Helsinki Summit and more than one visitor remarked on the sparse flying display (with, unusually, a civil Hercules, the LM-100J, being the show-stopper), by the end of the week it had been a bumper show with over 1,400 orders (firm, options and MoUs) signed, worth $190bn and only beaten by the 2014 show. Indeed, the first day's order total was double that achieved in the 2016 show. Boeing was the eventual winner with 673 commitments announced (145 of these, however, were already in the order book), overtaking Airbus' 431 sales tally. Although Farnborough is a global exhibition, 2018 also had a more British theme to it, coming hard on the heels of RAF100 celebrations in London and RIAT-and UK aerospace, aviation and space sectors pulled out all the stops - with a dazzling showcase of innovation from a flying Aston Martin, in-orbit satellite servicing and spaceport news, hybrid-electric VTOL bizjets, to 'conscious aircraft', future fighter concepts and solar-powered drones. Let's take a look at the highlights.
展开▼
