Strengthening its position as the global leader of the aerospace industry, Boeing has booked historic orders and showcased its innovation and strategy for growth at the Airshow. Boeing announced a total of USD98.4 billion in orders and commitments for commercial airplanes at list prices and USD2.1 billion in commercial and defence services orders and agreements during the closing of the industry portion of the show.

“Boeing led the way at Farnborough, demonstrating value for our customers, capturing important new business in products and services, and announcing the unique strength of our strategic partnership with Embraer,” said Chairman, President and CEO, Boeing, Dennis Muilenburg.

Marking an outstanding week for order capture in commercial aviation, with customers announcing 673 orders and commitments in total, Boeing reflected a continued resurgence in demand for freighters and strong order activity for the 737 MAX and 787 passenger airplanes. Boeing also secured 48 orders and commitments for the 777F, five for the 747-8F. This reflected continued strengthening in the cargo market globally.

The orders comprise an additional 75 737 MAX 8 aeroplanes placed by Jet Airways and is currently being valued at USD8.8 billion.

Boeing also confirmed that Vistara Airline, the joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata Group, has agreed to order six 787-9 Dreamliners. This includes options for four more jets at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow.

Revealing its 2018 Commercial Market Outlook at the Farnborough Airshow, Boeing has raised its 20-year outlook for commercial airplanes and services to USD15.1 trillion.

Boeing also announced its collaboration with artificial intelligence company SparkCognition to deliver unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM) solutions at the show.

Finally, the show marked the launch of a new brand campaign, ‘The Future is Built Here’, highlighted by a dynamic exhibit that featured interactive virtual and augmented-reality displays that showed visitors Boeing’s commercial and defence products, service offerings and future innovations.

Lockheed Martin Introduces FireHerc

The LM-100J ‘FireHerc’, was introduced by Lockheed Martin at the Airshow. The FireHerc is a civil-certified firefighting air tanker variant of the proven C-130J Super Hercules which the airlifter of choice for 18 nations around the world.

The LM-100J is the commercial freighter production model of the C-130J Super Hercules and an updated version of the legacy L-100 commercial Hercules freighter. The LM-100J flew at and on static display at this year’s FIAS.

A commercial freighter production model of the C-130J Super Hercules, the LM-100J is an updated version of the legacy L-100 commercial Hercules freighter. The new model is even flying at and on static display at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow.

“With the presence of wildfires increasing on a global scale, there is a real-time need to provide more advanced assets to protect our people, communities and environment,” said vice president and general manager, Air Mobility & Maritime Missions at Lockheed Martin, George Shultz. He added, “As a variant of the C-130J Super Hercules, the FireHerc delivers a powerful combination of established, performance advantages and innovative technology that will truly change the way we fight and defeat wildfires.”

Rolls-Royce Demos Future of Robotics

Demonstrating the future of robotics use case scenarios, Rolls-Royce, at the Farnborough International Airshow 2018 showed an exciting vision of how robotics could be used to revolutionise the future of engine maintenance. Rolls-Royce teamed up with academics from the University of Nottingham and Harvard University to discuss and demonstrate a wide range of potential future technologies at the Airshow.

The technologies on display were at varying levels of maturity, and included:

• SWARM robots – a set of collaborative, miniature robots, each around 10mm in diameter which would be deposited in the centre of an engine via a ‘snake’ robot. These robots would carry small cameras that provide a live video feedback to the operator.
• INSPECT robots – a network of ‘periscopes’ permanently embedded within the engine, enabling it to inspect itself using the periscope cameras to spot and report any maintenance requirements.
• Remote boreblending robots –a robotic boreblending machine that can be remotely controlled by specialist engineers.
• FLARE – a pair of ‘snake’ robots which are flexible enough to travel through an engine.

Speaking at the event, senior vice president marketing, Rolls-Royce, Richard Goodhead, said, “The advancements we are making in robotics are a great example of us bringing our IntelligentEngine vision to life. By exploring how we might use the rapid progress we are seeing in fields such as digital and robotics, we are ensuring that Rolls-Royce will continue to lead the way in service innovation, offering the very best value for our customers.”

On-Wing Technology Specialist, Rolls-Royce, Dr James Kell, added, “While some of these technologies, such as the SWARM robots, are still a long way from becoming an everyday reality, others, such as the remote boreblending robot, are already being tested and will begin to be introduced over the next few years.

GA-ASI Expands Collaboration with GKN Aerospace

GKN Aerospace declared their intent to collaborate with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA ASI) on manufacturing composite tails for GA-ASI’s Predator B Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) series via a Letter of Interest (LoI) signed at the show.

“We are pleased to expand our relat