A large contingent of U.S. companies competing for commercial, military and space business in the Middle East have made the trip to the Dubai Airshow to showcase their technologies, equipment and services. Their collective hope is to capitalize on the Middle East’s economic growth, rapid modernization, elevated defense and security requirements and heightened ambitions of the United Arab Emirates Space Agency.
Gathered primarily in the U.S. International Pavilion here at the Dubai World Central site, some 150 U.S. exhibitors in total account for as much as 15 percent of the show’s total, making them the largest contingent of exhibitors booked for the event, according to U.S. show organizer Kallman Worldwide. In coordination with numerous government agencies, the 2,200-square-meter (23,681 sq ft) pavilion serves as an on-site business hub for U.S. exhibitors and a destination for buyers looking for an efficient way to meet those companies.
“When the U.S.A. commits to exhibit at the Dubai Airshow, we’re saying we believe in the power of this event to attract real business prospects and customers. The steady growth and diversification of the show speaks for itself,” said Kallman Worldwide president and CEO Tom Kallman. The U.S. Pavilion will once again be trading under the slogan “Ask America First” that it launched at the Paris Air Show in June.
Of the 90-plus companies participating in the U.S. International Pavilion, more than 30 appear within six state-sponsored pavilions representing Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Virginia, New Hampshire and Washington State. The largest of the six state pavilions–Florida–showcases aviation and aerospace business representing specialties ranging from maintenance, repair and overhaul to ground support equipment to avionics and pneumatic systems. Fittingly, Florida is home to one of the country’s largest aerospace and aviation industries.
Making its first appearance at a Dubai Airshow, the state of New Hampshire features three companies whose specialties span from below the ocean to satellite orbit. AQYR, for one, provides satellite communications hardware; HALO Maritime Defense Systems designs sea barriers and Transupport distributes parts for gas turbine engines.
Another show debutante–Seattle-based LKD Aerospace–appears with Washington State’s trade show group. The company distributes parts for such aerospace and defense OEMs as Honeywell and Nordam Transparencies. LKD also designs and manufactures both OEM and aftermarket PMA components and provides MRO services it its FAA/EASA repair station. Its Gladiator Technologies division designs and manufactures MEMS inertial systems used in flight testing and other applications.
Specializing in the supply of spare and obsolete aircraft parts, MAC Aerospace has provided customers with logistics support and advanced military defense systems for 25 years. It promotes itself as a reliable supplier of a wide range of components including difficult-to-find and obsolete spare parts. MAC has expanded its capabilities to include an array of support services, from supplying urgently needed spare parts for military systems to services such as export licensing, engineering and overhaul repair.
Other highlights of the U.S. presence in Dubai include composite material repair kits, sheet metal mechanics tool kits and blind rivet installation tool kits featured by FSI, which represents Cherry Aerospace, Huck Aerospace, Sioux Air Tools, Makita Assembly Tools and Zephyr/Lok-Fast.
U.S. companies with specific news to announce at the show include Flatirons, which recently won a contract from Finnair to provide its eEnabled Software Management (eESM) product. Finnair plans to use eESM to support configuration control and distribution of the numerous software packages used aboard modern E-enabled aircraft. The system tracks all aspects related to aircraft software and allows operators to store the software in an on-ground repository for upload to the aircraft through portable data loaders and physical media.
In the field of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Aurora Flight Sciences just announced that on July 1 it received official notification from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) that its Orion aircraft set the world record for duration of a flight for a remotely controlled UAV. The 80-hour flight toppled the previous record set by a Global Hawk in 2001 of just over 30 hours.
Among educational institutions represented here, Green River College in July won authorization to offer bachelor’s degrees in aeronautical science. The Auburn, Washington institution offers instruction in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, air traffic control, airline dispatch and airport management. Graduates of its Bachelors of Applied Science (CAS) program in Aeronautical Science are eligible for the 1,000-hour Restricted Airline Transport Pilot (R-ATP) certificate from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.