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Friday, March 29, 2024
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Singapore Airshow 2014 Exhibits and First look

The 2014 Airshow this year is held at the Changi exhibition center, which was built as a one stop aviation display hub north of Changi Airport and just off Changi coast road. You will be able to get to the exhibition center directly with a car pass or taxi where a $10 surcharge will apply on the outbound journey from changi exhibition center itself and not to the show venue itself. Alternatively, those who purchase regular day tickets can find more parking lots at Singapore Expo and take the free shuttle from Expo hall 7 itself direct to the show venue. Doing so will allow you to be screened at the Expo itself allowing you to bypass the screening at the venue, which this case is reserved for visitors arriving directly at the exhibition center itself.

Welcome to the airshow!
Road entrance
Exhibtion hall
Exhibition hall
Exhibition indoor area
Indoors

General exhibits
Upon entering front of the hall, you will be greeted by ST Kinetics display, always taking the center stage in the air show main pavilion with a booth area even dwarfing that of Airbus and Boeing alike. Despite them being an Airshow a major sponsor of the air show, ST pretty much spared no expense in showcasing literally most of their portfolio of products like a marketing dump, laughably with a strikingly large number of exhibits not actually related to aerospace at all.

ST armament section
STK booth
CAAS display
CAAS
Rolls
Rolls Royce

With the exception of the bigger exhibitors like Rolls Royce, AirBus and COMAC (commercial aircraft corporation of china) featuring a variety of aircraft on display, the indoor exhibition area is separated by regions, with each sector dedicated to aerospace or defense companies originating from that particular region.

Boeing
Boeing
Airbus booth
Airbus booth
A350 crew rest areas
A350 mockup

The exhibition areas are themed largely to regions, with the American and Israel regions being the most prominent exhibitors in the show. Companies to look out for here will include Boeing, Bell to IAI, IMI and Rafael.

cfm booth
cfm booth
Israel Aircraft Industries
IAI hardware
Rafael
Rafael guided munitions

Notable exhibitors in this year’s show will be the rise of prominent Chinese Aerospace companies and the rise of the Chinese Aerospace industry fueled by serving the mass Chinese market within China itself. The Chinese pavilion is all decked in bright red, in contrast to the US pavilion with blue carpets complete with white stars.

American Pavilion
American pavilion
China Pavilion
China pavilion
China's COMAC
Comac booth

Lasughable, both the “United” companies have their booths right next to each other, with United Technologies with their range of sister companies such as Pratt and Whitney, sikorsky etc right next to United Aircraft Corporation (Sukhoi).

Bell helicopter
Bell Helis
United P&W
United Tech Pratt and Whitney
AM general
AM General land

While Boeing and Airbus has booths within the exhibition area accessible by the public, the outdoor chalet areas are closed invitation-only and trade visitor only areas, notable aerospace and defense technology companies will include Northrop Grumman and Lockheed martin, with the latter having an F-35 mock up on display for public viewing.

Lockheed Chalet
Lockheed displays
Lockheed chalet
Lockheed Chalet
F35 mockup
F-35 JSF

Simulators within the exhibition area on display includes a Dreamliner (787) a Cobra (Bell AH-1) all running completely off PC-based flight simulators. You can also find a full cockpit mock up of the new A350 complete with the digital cockpit at the Airbus booth. You can explore the A350 on the outdoor display areas. You can expect very long queues while waiting to have a go at these simulators on public days. But they are not as busy on the trade show days.

787 simulator
787 Simulator
Cobra
Cobra simulator
A350 mockup
A350 cockpit mockup

Open air display area
The open Static Air Display Area (SADA) is home to a variety of live aircraft. In conjunction with Republic Singapore Air Force (RSAF) 45th anniversary celebrations, 17 different air and land platforms are on display. Airborne ones includes fixed wing transport aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, fighters and rotary wing transport and attack helicopters.

Private jets
Private jets
Boeing 787 belly
787 belly
Prop planes
Small engine planes

Commercial aircraft out here comprise of mainly a variety single engine piston driven propeller leisure craft (synonymous to Cessna planes), a combination jet propelled private aircraft such as Gulfstream private jets as well as a static display of modern commercial passenger planes such as a 787 by Qatar and the A350. Notable military aircraft include the F15-SG which recently obtained operational status. Ground-based vehicles will include a variety of air-defense systems like the Rapier and Spyder missile system sprawled across the open area, which can be rather scorching on a mid-afternoon.

787 exterior
787 Dreamliner
F15SG Nose
F-15 Frontal
C-130
C-130 crew

In addition to teh 45 years of RSAF open air display, there is a large air conditioned tentage at the far end of the open air display area featuring exhibits, try-out and multimedia. The RSAF staff members were all very polite and professional in elaborating to the public if they have any queries. The tentage here is where the Black Knights aerial performance team will sign autographs after about 2 hours every aerial display session.

RSAF exhibition
F-15S on display
AH-64 Apache

The US has a number of military planes on display too, such as the F-35 JSF, KC-135 strato tanker, Osprey and C-17, where you will be able to catch the latter in the aerial displays. Have any questions on the air platforms too? The crew on board happy to take questions and explain to trade visitors any aspects of the plane.

C-17 ramp down
C-17 cargo door
C-17 interior
C-17 cargobay
C-17 from KC-135
C-17 from KC-135

The C-17 Globemaster III is essentially a more heavy lift version of the old C-130, with 4 by-pass Pratt & Whitney F117-PW-100 turbo-fan engines in place of turbo-props on the C-170. It can carry a larger payload of about 77 tons too.

K-135 from 909 SQN
K-135 at SADA
K-135 cockpit
K-135 cockpit
KC135 crew
909SQN Crew brief

Admin areas
The show indoor areas are excellent areas to hide from the heat, but there are little or no seating areas, especially around the hall entrances, where most people will loiter about. There are ample toilets but no water fountains (the tap water is drinkable). Food is generally expensive here. Heading out for lunch means having to go through queues and security again, which can take up to 2 hours. So, most visitors here are petty much stuck on the premises itself. You are advised to bring your own water and light packed lunches as cafeteria food is generally very expensive here, a can of coke costs $2 from the vending and simple meals (nasi lemak, bee hoon, etc) and taco wraps starts from $6-8 onwards

That’s all for the intro of the event many can expect for this weekend. See you there!

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