Story ID: 380
USA Partnership Pavilion Promotes Cooperation
By: Ian Sheppard
Caption: A celebration of 100 years of French and U.S. partnership in aviation is at the center of the newly rebranded U.S. Pavilion
Word Count: 526
The U.S. Pavilion at the Paris Air Show this year is focusing on “innovation and partnership.” The Pavilion is organized by Kallman Worldwide, and the company’s president and CEO Tom Kallman is adamant that the U.S. aerospace industry can’t succeed in isolation, and needs to play a full part at shows such as this week’s Le Bourget gathering.

“No person, no company, no country succeeds in isolation. Now, more than ever, success in international trade comes from partnership and teamwork,” Kallman said last month, as aerospace companies from around the U.S. prepared to head to the French capital. For his own part, and underlining his commitment, Kallman will this week unveil a new onsite headquarters at the show: the USA Partnership Pavilion.

More than 350 U.S. companies are exhibiting here this week, and more than 240 of these (representing 32 States) are showing their wares in the new 4,200 sq m (45,201 sq ft) Partnership Pavilion. In addition, “many U.S. civil and military aircraft will be displayed during the show,” Kallman said.

“The new USA Partnership Pavilion builds on [a decades-long] foundation to help position U.S. companies to advance our nation’s leadership in the global economy,” he continued, pointing to 18 state economic development groups exhibiting in dual roles both promoting the companies based in their home states who are seeking to export more overseas; and also “prospecting for overseas companies to establish or expand operations in the U.S.”

The U.S. Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) is a sponsor of the USA Partnership Pavilion, with 36 AIA member companies on board as exhibitors. David Melcher, AIA president and CEO, said, “Venues like the USA Partnership Pavilion provide us the opportunity to highlight the fact that small- and medium-sized companies in the supply chain represent 56 percent of the value of all U.S. aerospace and defense exports.”

The USA Partnership Pavilion is celebrating “A century of French and American partnership” during the show. Starting with the 1916 founding of the Escadrille Americain,e comprised largely of American volunteers flying for France during World War I (it was renamed the Escadrille Lafayette later that year), and continuing through milestone military, commercial and space achievements of the 20th and now 21st Centuries, the relationship between the two countries exemplifies the spirit of bilateral cooperation for mutual success promoted at Le Bourget.

As well as this theme being promoted in the USA Partnership Pavilion during the show, it is the topic of the keynote conversation between AIA and GIFAS, the French aerospace industries association, at the opening of “The Forum,” the new USA Partnership Pavilion networking and presentation stage, on Tuesday, June 20.

“Since the days of the Wright brothers and Bleriot, France and the United States have shared a proud history, healthy competition and mutual respect for each other’s pioneering accomplishments in flight,” said Paris Air Show chairman Emeric d’Arcimoles. “We are pleased this year to host the new USA Partnership Pavilion and look forward to joining our American partners in the conversations and celebrations of our two nations.”