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Aviation event has its big, fast and noisy side

By David Bowermaster
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

LONDON — Walt Gillette paused until the fighter jet shaking the walls of Boeing's temporary headquarters flew to another corner of the Farnborough Air Show.

"Much to my dismay, the (Sonic Cruiser) does not need afterburners," Boeing's lead aircraft designer said finally. " 'Cuz I think afterburners are really cool."

For the stony-faced executives striding purposely through the makeshift corporate village at this humble airfield south of London, the Farnborough Air Show is about billion-dollar deals and the chance to make a company or break a career.

But even the most hardened execs stop what they're doing to look skyward at the daily flight demonstrations. Clearly Farnborough is also about a lot of really cool stuff.

Picture the Blue Angels over Lake Washington, with the beer, boats and bikinis replaced by guys in dark suits (and it is overwhelmingly guys), and you get the idea.

First, an Augusta/Bell AB-139 helicopter nose-dives toward the ground before pulling into a straight vertical climb. Then a Eurofighter Typhoon shakes the ground as it rolls and rolls overhead before slowing to a dead-quiet stall.

Other snazzy aircraft are parked at the "static display." On the Connexion by Boeing demonstration jet, you can pick up a wireless laptop and send an e-mail to Mom while watching a live stream of CNN captured by the plane's satellite receiver.

Or tour the Embraer 170, the 70- to 90-seat "regional" jet by the Brazilian planemaker that is the world's first in its size.

But some of the niftiest gadgets are in the five cavernous exhibition halls. The rows and rows of booths would look familiar to anyone who has ever been to an industry trade show, but the attractions can overwhelm with sheer scale.

Messier-Dowty and Goodrich have mock-ups of the enormous nose and body landing gear, respectively, that will bring the 555-seat Airbus A380 safely back to Earth when it goes into service in 2006.

The structures themselves would tower over most Seattle homes, while the 4-foot Michelin radials are rated for 61,300 pounds of pressure and top speeds of 235 miles per hour.

The hulking General Electric 90-115B engine that will power the 777-300ER and 777-200LR looms over visitors to the GE Aircraft Engines booth. And MTU Aero Engines, a division of Daimler Chrysler, has the 17.5-foot turboprop that will be used on the proposed Airbus A400M troop transport.

Other companies took the video-game approach. The biggest crowd at the Boeing booth was around the 767 RARO II, an interactive demonstrator of a cockpit refueling boom Boeing has designed for its new 767 tankers.

And then there was the pumice.

Past the computer gadgetry and carbon-fiber composite materials, in a corner of the Department of Defense exhibit, stood an unassuming brick of pumice pebbles.

According to Howard McCaulhey of the U.S. Navy, the Navy's Ordnance Evaluation and Pumice Technology Program Office figured out that when small pieces of pumice are bonded together with an epoxy resin, they become an excellent barrier for absorbing and deflecting explosive blasts. And they float.

The Navy is placing protective pumice buoys around ships in foreign ports.

The Pentagon is shipping ordnance in pumice. And the State Department is mulling pumice barriers for embassies abroad.

Best of all, it's nearly ubiquitous and costs about $17 a cubic yard.

"I don't know who thought of it," McCaulhey said, "but it's pretty cool."

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