Blog Posts from July, 2010

I’ve spent the last 11 days at the 2010 Farnborough International Air Show in Hampshire County, U.K., and it’s honestly been an eye-opening experience.

What I’ve realized is that planes are awesome, but more than that, people are awesome.

The Farnborough International Air Show brings over 1,300 exhibitors, 165 static aircraft and 285,000 visitors into one area for a massive global aviation event.

There are over 30 countries represented here and billions of dollars of business transactions taking place every moment.

There are over 70 American personnel who have been diligently working at the air show, all with the common goal of building interoperability.

Spectators gather to view static displays at the show

While this word, ‘interoperability’, is (usually) thrown out a lot by senior leadership, and many of us may not really think we know the definition; it is a word we actually understand in practice, especially with the help of this air show.

We are here to work with other countries, not because we want to show off, but because we realize that we have phenomenal partners and if we work together, we can really accomplish a lot. Perhaps we could even achieve world peace or at least make our best attempt at it.

Interoperability means you can’t do things on your own. A country that relies only on its own assets, people and management will never succeed.

This mutual interdependence means capitalizing on the strengths of each team member, while showing resolve and support through a cooperative effort.

While we’re working with these other countries, we learn and grow together as, not just a country, but as a global community.

Most of the air crews’ hours were spent in the hot sun, mixed with your normal England spring showers, where the pilots stood among seven of our corralled aircraft static displays, talking to the many visitors about their aircrafts’ capabilities and equipment. Other than a small break to eat lunch, these guys were outside speaking to and escorting the public while showing off their aircraft almost all day.

All the commanders, pilots, air crew and support personnel I’ve met here have been so impressive and inspirational to me.

The public affairs team was responsible for highlighting everyone’s hard work and as such, we’ve had the great opportunity to meet some really incredible people while also learning more about what they do.

The Public Affairs team poses for pictures

The passion, professionalism and downright good nature of our U.S. team here became abundantly clear to me with each passing day. It seems everyone truly loves what they do and they’re proud of it; they think their jobs are the best and love talking about it.

The PA team, along with all the rest of the U.S. Farnborough team, truly had a blast working together and meeting each other while also meeting with several other countries along the way.

This blog doesn’t even begin to describe what an experience this place has been, but hopefully it gives you just a glimpse of the magic we were a part of.

Air Force Capt. Naomi Evangelista, Farnborough International Air Show Joint Information Bureau