SHOW REPORT Dubai Air Show 2021

Around the bazaars

WAYNE J DAVIS FRAeS soaks up the atmosphere of Dubai with a lighter, personal look at the air show.

It was as the bagpipe and drumming band passed me in full blast and full glam red military regalia, after my attention had been taken by the Ferrari and Bentley used by the Dubai police force, only to be deafened by the jet fighter making a low pass over the display, that I fully realised, this must be the Dubai Air Show.

Getting to the show came via cab journeys with drivers quoting and charging with less consistency and accuracy than an MoD procurement cost estimate. Airport security lite followed with the opportunity to show off a heavy vintage hp laptop and go for a sans belt low-rider trouser look. Is that my plain black rucksack in the tray or that of the grumpy 8:30am photographer behind?

At the entrance to the show each day was a young artist, Lateefa Mohammed, painting the Dubai skyline, with a few of the UAE’s and Dubai’s founding fathers looking on. She told me she was commissioned by the UAE MoD to produce it. I wondered if this could inspire the UK MoD to perhaps commission Banksy.

At the back of a press conference scrum. Wayne J Davis/RAeS

Is it a coincidence that Dubai sounds like ‘Do you buy?’, probably, but Dubai is a place where people make money and this week it is to be made with aircraft. The show hall is of course essentially a market with stalls promoting engines, seating, missiles, avionics, airlines, training, energy, finance, weapon systems, MRO, Space exploration, aircraft lessors and much else that comes from the monetisation of aerospace.

On the flightline I found myself touring military cargo aircraft. While checking out the basic fixtures and fittings of a USAF C-17 Globemaster, I could not help wondering how they managed to leave Kabul airport last summer carrying a claimed 823 people. A visit to the smaller A400 with the charming RAF Wing Commander Ed Horne, gave me the chance to get up into the cockpit. I worried about the emergency mini pick axe in the hold and ‘escape rope' in the cockpit. The trustpilot rating for any mission is surely hovering around one star at the point either of those implements are considered an option.

Lateefa painting as we entered. Wayne J Davis/RAeS

The Russians were showing off a new fighter and I experiemced a terrifying live show in the purpose-built Checkmate pavilion showcasing Russia’s fifth new-generation fighter, the Sukhoi Su-75, in jumbo airfix form. Lights, lasers, projections, deafening rock and a doom-laden-voiced narrator told of the power, the glory and the destructiveness of this apparently top level unstoppable killing machine. Never has a plastic aircraft model looked more menacing. The whole presentation had a charm of sorts, but was more suited to an '80s Def Leppard video than an airshow.

As well as Blade Runner-style eVTOLs (see p32) in the halls, I witnessed a robot that disinfected aircraft cabins by blasting UV light across the area eliminating 99% of all bacteria and viruses, including Covid-19. Disappointingly the robot was given neither a face, a voice nor any human characteristics. In the future-tech area I saw several other eye-catching technological innovations but all those moments will to me be lost in time, like tears in the rain.

One of two marching bands at Dubai. Wayne J Davis/RAeS

Elsewhere at the show were two drones from Flying Cam that had won them both an Emmy (real one on display) and an Oscar (real one not on display) for their use in the filming of Bond films, Resident Evil, The Harry Potter films and Game of Thrones.

Not sure if the drones had thanked their operators in the acceptance speech.

What began with the red-eye tube along both blue lines of the London underground ended with warm and slightly confused memories of the Dubai Air Show and a tinge of regret at never seeing Lateefa’s finished painting of Dubai and its founding fathers.