Farnborough – General Info - History of Farnborough

Farnborough Aerodrome is renowned for its long-standing aviation links. No other site in the United Kingdom, possibly the world, can claim a closer, more continuous association with the history of man's conquest of air than the airfield at Farnborough.

Aircraft and, before that, man-carrying kites, airships and balloons have taken from the grasslands since the early days of the century. Virtually every major development in aerospace technology since Orville Wright flew from Kitty Hawk in 1903 has, in some way, been linked with the pioneers who have researched on the airfield and in the clusters of laboratories and test centres that lay amongst the Farnborough runways.

The SBAC's origins spread back to 29th March 1916 when the Society was incorporated as the Society of British Aircraft Constructors. Membership opened at 75 Members.

In the early days, the SBAC's membership consisted almost entirely of aeroplane manufacturers, and the Society got involved in areas such as industry wage discussions and consultation by the Air Ministry on Air Regulations. The Society's membership grew steadily and in 1947, the first SBAC Annual Report issued after the war, declared 410 Members.

The SBAC became the Society of British Aerospace Companies in 1964 - a change that reflected the large number of members involved in the design and manufacture of equipment, and not just in aircraft and engine manufacture. Membership stood at over 525 companies.

In 2009, SBAC merged with the Defence Manufacturers Association (formally DMA) and the Association of Police and Public Security Suppliers (formally APPSS) to form A│D│S, a trade association to cover the whole spectrum of the UK’s AeroSpace, Defence and Security industries.

Although the Association has grown in shape and the scope of its work, its mission still remains broadly the same as when it was formed 85 years ago - to represent and co-ordinate members' activities to the business advantage of the Industry as a whole.

FIA2004 was the first show held under Civil rather than Military Regulation. Airline orders and defence spending announcements dominated with $20 billion of business done during the trade days. Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, opened the show and announced a 30 million network to disseminate lighter, stronger composite technologies for aerospace, automotive and other industries.


		42 official military delegations visited the show, and exhibitor numbers were up from 1,240 to 1,360. A total of 243,000 visitors attended the show 133,000 from Monday to Friday and 110,000 of the public over the weekend. 2006 was another very successful year with visitors up to 263,000 plus some 850 VIP guests and a total of $42 Billion in sales announced during the show. The highlight of the show was the display given by the enormous Airbus AB380. The usual favourites such as The Red Arrows, BBMF and the Rolls- Royce Spitfire excited the crowd and the Hero’s award went to the Babcock Slingsby T67 which put on a brilliant display in the middle of a thunderstorm! 2008 was a record-breaking year in terms of sales with US$88.7bn worth of orders announced. 70 delegations from 38 countries attended alongside 133,000 trade visitors throughout the week and 153,000 on the public weekend. Particular highlights of the show included the flight of the last remaining airborne Avro Vulcan, as well as the replica model of the Cody Flyer, Samuel Franklin Cody’s famous aircraft in which he made the first UK powered flight providing the centre piece for the Centenary celebrations alongside the diamond anniversary of the airshow at its Farnborough home.

FARNBOROUGH TIMELINE

YEAR	EVENT
1948	Airshow moves to Farnborough site
1949	The De Havilland Comet 1 (the world’s first jet airliner) makes its debut
1950	The Bristol Brabazon I flew
1951	Hawker P.1067 gave the fastest speed demonstration then seen in public
1952	First appearance of the Avro Vulcan B.1
1956	The then world airspeed record holder, the Fairey FD.2 flew
1958	Aerobatic display by the Black Arrows
1964	The Yellowjacks – the forerunners of the Red Arrows displayed
1966	The first year of European aircraft participation, and first year of the Red Arrows
1968	20-aircraft fly-past to form a 50 to celebrate the RAF’s 50th anniversary
1970	Concorde made its triumphant debut during the flying display
1974	First ever fully international display at Farnborough; arrival of USAF Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird which broke the New York to London speed record en route to Farnborough
1978	Airshow renamed Farnborough International; specially built ski-jump enabled Harrier T.52 to launch itself to demonstrate STOL capability
1980	Red Arrows perform with their new Hawk T.1s; Mirage 2000, Super Mirage 4000 and Tornado prototype of F.2 variant all displayed
1984	World’s largest helicopter a Mil Mi-26 Halo flew
1988	Russian fighters in the form of two Fulcrums MiG-29A 10 and MiG-29UB 53 came to the show
1990	Russian Airforce wowed the crowd with tail-slide and cobra manoeuvres; the world’s largest aircraft, the Antonov An-225 Mriya displayed
1992	Rare display of extensive range of former Soviet aircraft types
1996	Flypast by USAF B-2A Spirit
1998	50th year of the airshow at Farnborough; feature of aircraft and jet types from the 1950s and 1960s; two British Airways Concordes visited
2000	de Havilland formation flypast
2002	Formation flight of four Eurofighter typhoons; handing over to Virgin Atlantic of ultra-long version of A340
2004	First ever landing at Farnborough of 747s and display by South African and Cathay Pacific 747s
2006	UK debut of Airbus A380
2008	100 year anniversary of first sustained powered flight in Britain by Samuel Franklin Cody from Farnborough in 1908 and the 60th anniversary of Farnborough International Airshow at the Farnborough Aerodrome.
2009	2009 SBAC merges with APPSS and DMA to form A│D│S