Asian Aerospace Opens Last Time in S'Pore (Feb 20)
SINGAPORE --- Asian Aerospace (AA) / Asian Defence Technology (ADT) opens it doors tomorrow, with all expectations that the final event in Singapore will be the largest event in its 25 year history.
Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister, Co-ordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Law, Prof S. Jayakumar, will officiate at the AA 2006 opening ceremony to be held at SUNTEC Singapore this evening.
Singapore’s Minister for Defence, Mr Teo Chee Hean, and Minister for Transport, Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, will jointly perform the official ribbon cutting ceremony to herald the start of the event at the Changi Exhibition Centre tomorrow morning.
The AA/ADT 2006 event will see 21 national pavilions and over 930 exhibitors from 43 countries, taking part. This represents a more than 20% increase over the AA 2004 event of 18 national pavilions and 759 exhibitors from 37 countries. The event will also see the record attendance of about 153 official military and civil delegations from 44 countries, up from last show’s delegation attendance of 148 delegations from 47 countries. Visitor pre-registration numbers, coming from 62 countries this time around, have gone up significantly. In all, we expect more than 27,000 trade visitors over the four trade days of 21 – 24 February, and twice that number on the two public weekend days of 25 – 26 February.
The show conference calendar is also the biggest to date. The busy conference calendar includes the well-established Asia Pacific Security Conference (APSEC) and the IATA/AA Aviation Summit, as well as the specialized Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4i) and Unmanned Technologies conferences. In addition, there will be three new conferences focusing on Land Defense, Civil Training and Simulation, and Welcoming the new Airbus A380.
Mr Ed Ng, President of Asian Aerospace 2006 Pte Ltd., said: “We are all set for what promises to be one of the busiest shows in the history of Asian Aerospace. With a good 20% increase in exhibitors, a record 153 official delegations, the largest trade participation expected so far, and the strongest conference calendar ever, it looks like a solid week of networking, learning and business for all our participants.”
The eyes of the world’s aerospace media will of course be on the final presentation of AA in Singapore. More than 700 representatives from 200 media organisations have been accredited to cover the event.
Some of the highlights of this year’s Asian Aerospace will include the daily flying display of the A380 in the livery of the launch customer Singapore Airlines. Besides the F15C and F16C daily flying demonstrations, the flying display will include two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – IAI Malat’s Heron 1 and Elbit’s Hermes 450 medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAVs, which is a follow up to the pioneering UAV display in AA2004.
This year, on static display will be 46 aircraft, of which 18 aircraft are new to the Asian Aerospace show. The 18 new aircraft include most of the corporate business jets as well as the 5 trainer aircraft on display. The highlights of the static display will include the public debut of the A380 and the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s Apache AH-64D Longbow attack helicopter. Returning again to static display will be the Boeing B-1B Lancer supersonic bomber. There will also be full scale mock-ups of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and Gripen International’s Gripen fourth generation fighter aircraft.
The defence sector is well represented with the introduction of Asian Defence Technology (ADT) 2006 as an integral part of AA2006, distinctively positioned to connect land defence suppliers to the most influential network of government executives and the highest level of military officials from around the world. Highlight exhibits at ADT include Armoured Gun System (AGS) Light Tank, TERREX Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Multi-role Utility, Logistics and Equipment (MULE) Robotic Vehicle, PEGASUS Light Artillery Gun, SPIDER Light Strike Vehicle, and Future Soldier Systems such as Singapore Army’s Advanced Combat Man System (ACMS), US Army’s Future Warrior, and French Army’s Félin Soldier System.
Mr Ng added; “The various exhibits at AA and ADT 2006 cater to the fast growing market needs of the general aviation industry, corporate business jet travel, military transformation and homeland defence in Asia and beyond.”
Mr Ng said: “We look forward to welcoming the largest ever trade participation to AA 2006 and ADT 2006. So far, we have confirmed trade attendance from at least 89 countries already. This is more than the participation from 81 countries at the last show. As such, to facilitate participation at this show to be more meaningful and easier, we have introduced quite a few technology initiatives. For instance, we have a new online business matching service that introduces trade visitors to specific exhibitors that satisfy their profile needs. We are also implementing a delegation management system that takes into account the preferences of exhibitors and visitor delegations to schedule meeting appointments. Finally, we have tied up with PalmOne Inc to offer the Treo 650 PDAs/phones to exhibitors and all military delegations so that they can have real time access to their latest meeting schedules and updates.
Mr Ng concluded: “This looks like an exciting week. A lot of deals will be made.”
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Final Asian Aerospace in Singapore on Target for Record Participation
