ILA 2004

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Where? Berlin - Germany
When? 10-16/05/2004

One month before this year's ILA the signs were good that the show might emerge from the status of a small trade fair. Well, at least a little bis. The trade fair has been promoted as the 'Gateway to the East' and everything was made possible to give the russian manufacturers (esp. MiG and Sukhoi) to bring their aircraft to Berlin, and even more important, to take them back ;) But some weeks before the show: big dissapointment:

The companies do not have enough money to bring their jets to the show.
Before it was also announced that Boeing might bring a mock-up of their 7E7, but like most other US companies they even did not show up. Farnborough was and remains more attractive to them...
What was left were smaller foreign companies, the global global player EADS, a lot of companies from Germany and the Luftwaffe. Without the Luftwaffe and Airbus the static display would have been empty during the show...
But that's business, and as most Airshow enthusiats are interested in the public days of the show (Friday-Sunday), there are more important thing:

The Berlin Airshow

Held at the last week-end of the Internationale Luft- und Raumfahrtausstellung (International Aerospace Exhibition) ILA the air show attracted tens of thousands of visitors.
Besides the weather the show was worth to attend. Aircraft from the past to the present were in the air. Beginning in the early days with the Etrich Taube or the Albatross, warbirds like the Red Bull Corsair, the Jak-3 from Freiburg and the Mustang from England up to todays fighters including the Tornado and the Eurofighter Typhoon. On the civil side of the display Airbus was present in the flight display with the A318 and the A340-600. Other civil aircraft were business and general aviation aircraft. But I think that you can get a better impression if you browse through the photo galleries.
Personal highlights for me were the arrival of the Super Constellation on Monday afternoon, the Dornier Do-24 ATT and the flight display of the Messerschmitt M17.

Nevertheless the show still has factors that can still be improved: long pauses during the display were boring for both the public and the waiting pilots in their machines.
Now enjoy the photos, the next ILA is planned from May 15th-21st 2006(but might be held under a different name).