Singapore Airshow 2016: An Air-mazing Experience! (Part 2)
This is a continuity from my previous post on Singapore Airshow 2016: An Air-mazing Experience (Part 1).
The tour of the Airbus A350XWB and A400M aircraft was like a dream come true. If that’s not amazing enough, Airbus Group also ensures that the small group of bloggers get the best seats in house for the aerial display. For 3 editions of Singapore Airshow, I was seated on the hot tarmac to enjoy the aerial show, so excuse me for being a bit thrilled this time as we walked towards the Airbus Chalet!
Passing through many little meeting rooms with big names of Asian airlines on the list (for obvious reasons I won’t tell!), we took our place on the rooftop of the Airbus chalet along with Airbus other guests and their executives.
Coke light, peanuts and planes. Life is good.
As the dark clouds cleared the skies of Singapore, the attention was brought to the first aerial performance for the day. The Republic of Singapore Air Force F-15SG & AH-64D “Apache” grabbed everyone’s attention with a combination of loud manoeuvres and sleek slow flying actions.
As promised, the show from RSAF was different from previous editions but equally exciting.
I was waiting for the next performance when out of a sudden I saw this right in front of my eyes.
What the heck? Where did this huge wide body bird come from? Everyone was kind of amazed how quiet the plane is. Talk about making a surprise entrance.
The Airbus A350XWB showing off its ability to manoeuvre.
From the quiet Airbus A350WXB, the adrenaline levels were raised to the top by the next acrobatic performance. The Republic of Korea elite acrobatic team — the Black Eagles!
Winner of the Waddington International Airshow and Royal International Air Tattoo in 2012, the Black Eagles simply made a lot of people nervous with their loops and turns.
All at high speed and perfect coordination. I don’t think there’s an autopilot feature for all these manoeuvres. Pure talent and lots of handwork behind every moves.
The best part is they performed for 28 minutes. Yes, 28 minutes!
The aerial display for the day ended with a solo performance by French Air Force twin-engine fighter, the Rafale.
I was a bit disappointed as Royal Malaysian Air Force’s Su-30MKM did not performed on that day but overall it was a satisfying one hour of aerial display.
Airbus hospitality continues with a very nice lunch in their chalet.
Followed by a chat with their team from Airbus Training Centre in Singapore. Here, we were briefed about the technology behind pilot training using the Airbus Cockpit Experienced Trainer.
Remember when you got your new phone or camera? How many of you read your manual from cover to cover? Sure Airbus pilots still need to go through “academic” process of learning manuals but the Airbus Cockpit Experienced Trainer allows pilots to explore and be familiarised with the functions of each buttons in an Airbus cockpit at their own pace.
Besides Airbus presence at the Singapore Airshow 2016, we were also given time to explore the rest of the displays. Unfortunately I had to fly back to KL on the same evening but not before checking out some of the other aircrafts on display.
US Air Force fighter jet with RMAF A400M.
The Flying Tiger. A unique bird.
Indonesia’s CN-235 Navy’s transport aircraft with a Wonderful Indonesia decal.
The ever familiar MASwings ATR72-600.
UAV
RSAF’s transporter heli.
Not quite Top Gun but bolehla…
Overall it was an amazing trip. Simply the best Singapore Airshow experience for me personally. The planes and exhibition booths were highlight of the trip especially the Airbus A350 and A400M but what makes it even a special trip is the hospitality shown by the host throughout my stay in Singapore. A special thanks to Airbus Group especially Elsa (surely not easy to manage a group of Aviation Geeks 🙂 ), Quattro Communications and the other bloggers who made this trip a memorable one. Blue skies ahead!
Here’s a short video of my experience at Singapore Airshow 2016: