A look back at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow

In this blog post, Andy McDonald, a member of our Business Development team at Gowling WLG, shares his experience at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow.

Being a member of the Aviation, Aerospace and Defence team as a Business Development Executive comes with a great deal of things, such as collaboration with various sectors and jurisdictions globally, insights into well regarded industry, and the opportunity to go to Farnborough International Airshow, which took place between 22-26 July 2024.

Working with our Global team to be prepared for attend this event came with months of planning and multi-country organisation, and to leave the weeklong event with several forms of team success was a fulfilling feeling. As someone who attended this event with no legal background, I had a slightly different version of reflections from my experience at this trade show compared to our fee earners.

Flying and static displays

Taking place each afternoon of the show, I had the privilege of witnessing flying displays from the most advanced aircrafts in both commercial and military. No doubt the star of the show was the fighter jets display.

From the age of five, I have wanted to be a fighter pilot. With my first memory of these aircrafts originating from my childhood birthday party at an aircraft hangar museum, later coupled with my love for the movie Top Gun, seeing similar aircrafts perform took me back to that age leaving me in awe seeing them in live action as opposed to the movie screen. Aside from flying displays, various static displays of aircrafts were dotted around which you wouldn’t normally get that chance to see up close.

Big industry names

Moving into the exhibition, the scale of the tradeshow came to light. Five to six large exhibition halls all full of industry companies small and large, swarmed by business people suited up engaging in conversation. In certain moments I would just stand and observe, and although not understanding the conversations in depth, you could tell some great networking was unfolding which could one day could develop into big business which I found quite inspiring.

Each stall had representatives from companies, countries, and products ranging from small bolts to large drones. As the trade side of the industry was new to me, I spent a lot of time wandering around taking in the atmosphere from various business stalls including NASA, Lockheed Martin, Airbus, Safran, RTX.

Flight simulators

Amidst all the serious business, I was able to find flight simulators! Having the chance to sit in a fighter jet simulator flying an F-22 Raptor through canyons using the joystick and throttle was a definite highlight of the day. Given I reached 15,000 steps that day, it was safe to say I was one of the youngest people in the entire exhibition so to find something which could add a bit of fun to the day was a bonus.

To conclude, I think attending this tradeshow and immersing myself in the industry was a great experience for myself and my development. Attending Farnborough International Airshow created an increased passion for the sector I work in, further understanding of the companies we speak with, and sparked numerous conversations post event.

I would recommend to anyone attending industry events such as this for not only personal gain, but as a benefit of the team and the firm.