Alcoa Fastening Systems at the Paris Air Show
At the Alcoa booth at the 2009 Paris Air Show, Craig Brown, Vice President of Marketing and Customer for Alcoa Fastening Systems (AFS), talked about the three key areas where AFS is making a huge impact across both the commercial and military aircraft markets.
 

The Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35, is the plane everyone is talking about at the show this year.  The forgings produced by Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions for the Joint Strike Fighter are as well.  In addition to the monolithic forging on display at the Alcoa booth, the forgings are also on display at other booths throughout the show, including two partners of Alcoa and Lockheed:  Heroux-Devtek and Magellan Aerospace.  Actually, Alcoa solutions are on display at numerous customer booths throughout the show.

There are tons of fans of the Airbus A380 – including many Alcoans who know this plane has more Alcoa content on it than anything else flying.   From sheet, plate, blades and investment castings, forgings, and more than one million fasteners, Alcoa has the A380 covered (click here for more).

Lufthansa has launched a new Website, www.lufthansa.com/A380 that keeps track of the A380s that are scheduled to enter service next summer for Lufthansa.  It’s a neat site where fans can keep track of the tests and construction of the aircraft as they make their way across Europe to Airbus’ final assembly facility in Toulouse.

The Paris Air Show is about more than just customer meetings and planes. Alcoa Howmet's Ciral, France, plant was recognized by CIFRAS at a press conference at the show today. CIFRAS is a consortium of French aerospace companies focusing on supply change efficiencies. Alcoa Howmet Ciral was recognized for its work improving deliveries. Accepting the award from Alcoa Howmet were Xavier Dumant and Philippe Verhelle. Congrats to the whole Alcoa Howmet team!

One of the themes at this year’s Paris Air Show is green and sustainability – a core element to everything Alcoa.  The entire GE Engine booth, for example, was colored green -– even the world famous GE logo!

Other companies including Volvo Aero carried the sustainability message as well.  Volvo Aero said it perfectly:   “Green Isn’t  A Color, It’s a Commitment.”   Sounds like Alcoa!

There continues to be lots of activity across the show.  The first day of the show brought more than $5.5 billion in orders for the large players in the market.  A nice start considering the state of the economy.

One of the highlights of the first day was the introduction of the newest engine from GE Engines –- the GE NX engine.  This engine features Alcoa Howmet products in a number of areas.

Two stories confirmed today on the F-22 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The F-22 was scheduled to fly at the Paris Air Show each day this week.  After a week of rumors, it was confirmed that it will not be flying this week at all.  Another story that made the circles throughout the past few weeks was that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner – which features Alcoa products from fasteners, engine blades, and sheet and plate to name a few --  would attempt its maiden voyage during the show, but in Washington.  Boeing confirmed that it will not be flying the plane until they are ready and that air shows don’t determine their schedule.  Makes sense…do it when you are ready and do it right.

The Air Show kicked off today.  Lots and lots of meetings taking place with all of the largest players in the industry.  If traffic at the show is down because of the economy, it’s hard to tell.  The only part of the show that seems to be off is the weather -– rain forced postponement of some of the flight demonstrations today.  We’ll get a look at the flight line later this week where you’ll see some of the planes scheduled to fly -– pretty much all of them feature Alcoa solutions.

One of the first guests to the Alcoa booth was Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.  Senator Harkin, who is a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Sub-Committee, heard from Helmut Wieser and Mick Wallis on the great work being done in Davenport to support troops across the world and how we are continuing to produce solutions for the commercial aircraft industry despite the downturn.    

Bill Christopher, Dave Dobson and Fred Latrash also walked Senator Harkin through the many Alcoa contributions to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (click here to learn more about the JSF), including the large forged bulkheads made in Cleveland.

It’s just a few days to the show.  This year’s show will mark the 100th anniversary of the Paris Air Show.

The first show was held in 1909 at the Grand Palais near the Champs-Élysées. From 1909 to 1949, the Show took place between November and December at the Grand Palais. The first flying displays were seen in Orly in 1949, then at Le Bourget in 1951. From 1953, the show was rescheduled to take place in June at Le Bourget.

The airfield at Le Bourget is where Charles Lindbergh landed on the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris in 1927.  Le Bourget became the world’s most famous airfield… especially in the United States.

Swing back Monday and we’ll go through initial impressions on the show.  If you’ve never been to the Paris Air Show before, one bit of advice for Monday morning -– whatever time you are planning to arrive in the morning you should leave earlier.  Traffic is always tough on the opening day and security (as always) will also be tight.  No matter what, it will take you longer than you expect.  Plan for it and hope we’re wrong.

The 48th International Paris Air Show – Le Bourget takes place June 15th through the 18th (with participation for the general public from the 19th to the 21st).  The world of aerospace converges to conduct business and see the latest innovations involving flight.  Despite the economic downturn, the Paris Air Show appears to have lost none of its appeal -- organizers have fully booked space for the show and the more than 2,000 exhibitors from 42 countries will set a new record.  Approximately 150,000 professionals are expected to attend the show beginning next week.

Alcoa Aerospace, representing Alcoa Fastening Systems, Alcoa Power and Propulsion, Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions  (here too) Global Rolled Products, and Alcoa Defense, has more than 100 years of experience as a leader in developing and producing multi-material solutions for aerospace customers – from the Wright Flyer to the ARES I rocket and practically every plane flying today.

Watch this space for updates throughout the week from the Paris Air Show or come visit us in Hall 5 – D10.  We’ll try to give you a flavor of what’s happening at the show, what’s hot in the aerospace market, and the latest news from Le Bourget.