ILA Berlin, what to expect?

As a Dutchie, 27 April is a national holiday when we celebrate the birthday of our King, Willem-Alexander. A day of celebration throughout the complete country, but this year I will not be present. I will celebrate Willem-Alexander his birthday by spotting 200+ aircraft at the ILA Berlin Air Show. In this blog I will give a prospect about what I am going to witness at the airshow, in a following blog I will give a report about the visit.

The ILA (Internationale Luft- und Raumfahrtausstellung) Berlin is a bi-annual airshow held at Berlin-Schönefeld airport. ILA Berlin is one of the largest airshows happening today and the location, the Berlin ExpoCenter Airport (at Schönefeld), houses five large halls which is the centre of networking for over 1000 exhibitors. Along these exhibitors are OEMs, suppliers and MRO-service companies in the field of civil and military aviation. The airshow features a static and flying exhibition displaying over 130 unique types featuring UAVs, (military) training aircraft, large airliners, historic aircraft, bizzjets and helicopters.  Next to aviation, aerospace technology will also be on display but will not be discussed in this article.

New aircraft on display at ILA

Airshows are perfect occasions for the aircraft manufacturers to display and demo new types. One of the aircraft I am most excited about is the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion, the largest and heaviest helicopter under development for the US Military. It will be competing against the CH-47 Chinook for acquisition by the German Air Force of a replacement for the CH-53. The CH-53K features an aircraft which is powered by three 7500 shp GE38-1B turboshafts and could lift 12 tonnes externally. The CH-53K is promised to give a flight demo and I am exciting to see this humongous helicopter manoeuvre.

The F-35A will make an appearance at ILA 2018 as well. One year ago, at the Paris Air show, the F-35A gave its first areal capability demo. The F-35 is not been scheduled to flight yet, but I keep my hopes up to hear that F-135 engine roaring next week.

The Airbus A340 BLADE (Breakthrough Laminar Aircraft Demonstrator in Europe) will make its debut at the airshow. The A340 BLADE is a demonstrator with two outer transsonic laminar outer-wings, which could drastically decrease the wing friction which results in less fuel and thus fewer emissions, making aviation greener.

This year’s edition features an even bigger spectrum of UAV’s compared to past editions. UAVs as big as the European Male RPAS with a spanwidth of 25m and a MTOW of two tonnes or as small as the Black Hornet Minidrone which fits in your back pocket will be on display. The Zepyhr, Airbus’ solar powered aircraft which soars at 70000 ft and could provide an alternative to satellites.

What’s more?

Next to the newcomers, more civil and military aircraft will be displayed. The flying program offers quite a display from the German Air Force and a demo by the Spanish national display team: Patrulla Águila. The flight schedule features also slots for a ‘UAS exhibitor’ and the ‘ILA highlights’ but as of writing of this blog, no details were provided yet for these slots. At the static display, next to all the ‘state of the art’ aircraft, historic aircraft are displayed. One of my personal favourites, the Douglas DC-3, will be on static as well. For the military-aviation enthusiasts, the show provides enough: aircraft like the C-130J Hercules, NH-90, Eurofighter Typhoon, CV-22A Osprey, E-3A Sentry AWACS, Airbus A400M and many more are confirmed to be on display. For people who come to see big jets, the show provides as well: the Boeing 747-8 and the Airbus A380 shall provide a lot of shadow in the static display area. Overall, it promises to be a show worth visiting!

ILA: the numbers

Analyzing the aircraft list provides some interesting insights. To start with a 3.6 to 1 ratio of military market focused aircraft to civil market focused aircraft. The obvious reason is the wide range of mission types versus ‘conventional’ flying. From small drones to huge troop and cargo transporters, for almost every mission type, several types are offered at ILA.

Comparing all the aircraft categories, military combat- and training aircraft and helicopters/rotorcraft jump out. Within the helicopter/rotorcraft category, the focus is laid on the military market.For civil passenger aircraft, the huge orders usually take place at the Farnborough or the Paris airshow. Comparing the Paris airshow of last year, Boeing displayed the 787-10 and the 737-MAX 9 while Airbus displayed the A380 ‘plus’, the A350-1000 and the A321 neo. This year, Airbus will bring the A380 and A350-900 and Boeing will bring the 747-8 for the civil market.

Next article I will lay more focus on the upcoming technologies I have witnessed myself on the airshow next week. If you are visiting ILA, I hope I provided some more insight on the aircraft on display.