Few people would have imagined in advance that during the entire run-up to the Singapore Airshow, the most eye-catching models would not be Rafale, nor the Super Hornet, nor the two Huaxia airliners.

Instead, more than a dozen sorties were flown in three days, transporting many exhibiting aircraft from all over the world to the Changi Convention site.

In particular, when a medium-sized helicopter was pulled out of the cargo hold of the An-124, the reporters on the scene used almost half of the day's film on this scene.

And that's not all.

The Americans, who felt that this could not go on, also pulled out a C5, removed the wings of the Black Hawk helicopter that could have flown from the Subic base next door, stuffed it into it, and airlifted it to Singapore......

This is completely vindictive.

Volga Dnepr's An-124 charges the owner for every flight, while the C5 costs money.

Of course, the U.S. military, which has a lot of money, doesn't care about this kind of funding.

Less than 10 years after the end of the Cold War, giant transport aircraft such as the An-124 and C5 were rarely seen directly by the public.

In addition, the dissemination of information is not developed enough, and not many people have even seen it in photos.

It is definitely the top stream that can increase the media attention rate.

Especially a few days ago, these two models of similar size and purpose just took turns to land here, but there was no head-on encounter between the tip of the needle and the wheat mang.

This made many media outlets who wanted to take photos of the two in the same frame be eager to try it on the opening day.

As a result, both the United States and Russia said that they had only arranged cargo routes according to the normal plan, and there were no plans to exhibit these two models.

As soon as the news came out, the French finally breathed a sigh of relief.

They have high hopes for this air show.

Due to the backstabbing behavior of the French in the Gulf War (the Iraqi army's automated command system was imported from France, but it did not play a role at all in the war), the reputation of French weapons and equipment fell off a cliff all over the world, especially in Middle Eastern countries.

In addition, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the CIS countries engaged in indiscriminate dumping at unreasonably low prices, resulting in a very unoptimistic situation in France's arms sales in recent years.

It will take time for word of mouth to recover, so they urgently need to open up outside of the traditional market.

Although Southeast Asia and South Asia have been hit by the financial turmoil, the camel is bigger than the horse, and it is always stronger than the countries of Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa......

"I knew it was the case, I shouldn't have chartered a plane to transport ...... in the first place"

Guillaume Lemaire, the leader of the French delegation and vice president of the French Association of the Aerospace Industry, was relieved to look at the regretful reporters around him.

The first few An-124 sorties were actually mostly transporting things to French companies.

It's fine to have a passenger plane or something like that, but it's a bit difficult for a fighter or helicopter to fly from mainland France to Singapore on its own, not to mention that the Rafale is still a prototype.

So in order to save trouble, they simply brought in Volga-Dnepr Airlines, whose freight was broken.

As a result, the latter soon found that this was a great opportunity to advertise himself, so he sent many Russians their own equipment to the exhibition.

After that, the situation got a little out of control.

Fortunately, the limelight of the opening ceremony was not robbed.

The first four days of the Singapore Airshow, including the opening day, are professional days and are open to trade attendees only.

If the attention of these days is drawn to both sides of the United States and Russia, the public open day will not be of much significance at all.

Whose serious people pay for fighter jets?

……

As the salute sounded at the opening ceremony, the Singapore Air Force A4S attack aircraft and the French Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets began a joint air show, which finally drew the attention of the media and members of the delegations to the air show itself.

Confirming that everything was back on track, Le Maire moved his body and began to wander around the exhibition area of more than 70,000 square meters.

While scouting the competitors, let's also see if there are any possible deals.

According to his experience, these third world countries buy equipment very arbitrarily.

If the level and authority of the delegation sent are high enough, it is likely that the money will be paid on a whim.

Although you can't usually get any big orders, no matter how small the grasshopper is, it is still meat.

Retail and wholesale are both doing business, not chilling.

Perhaps because of the size of the exhibition area and the distance of the exhibition space, their two biggest rivals, the United States and Russia, did not bring much eye-catching equipment.

The Su-30, a multifunctional fighter that was previously regarded as a huge threat, did not show up, and only a few Su-27s of the Warrior Performance Team came, and they will leave the scene immediately after the performance.

As an "air show", the weapons and equipment exhibited by the Russian side were mainly anti-aircraft missile systems, and the latest S300PMU2 was placed opposite the Mirage 2000 booth.

Although it seems to be a bit of a smashing field, it does not constitute direct competition with the French side after all.

The Americans are still the same, although the F18F is making its first public appearance, it is a carrier-based aircraft after all.

With the exception of a few countries, almost no one will buy a carrier-based aircraft to use on land......

After going around the circle for most of the year, Le Maire nodded in satisfaction, his hands in his pockets, as if he had no opponent.

Enjoying how lonely it was to be invincible, he slowly walked to the last area in front of him-

Huaxia exhibition area.

At this point, Le Maire's state of mind was already very relaxed.

It is his own opinion that Huaxia is arranged as one of the three main pavilions through the operation behind the scenes.

The main purpose is to squeeze the scale of participation of several other major competitors such as Britain and Russia.

Judging from the actual results, this strategy is relatively successful.

Although Huaxia has shown some potential for rapid development in the past two years, the starting point is too low after all, even if they are given 15,000 square meters of exhibition area, they can only show something that is not competitive.

"Cockpit model of the third-generation fighter FC10 ......"

"Door ...... for the Airbus A320"

"Horizontal tail ...... for the Airbus A320"

Lemaire watched all the way, and secretly nodded for his wisdom to drive away the tiger and devour the wolf.

Although this is the Huaxia exhibition area, many exhibitors are exhibiting as suppliers, and the main supplier is Airbus.

It is no exaggeration to say that the distance of a few tens of meters as soon as you enter the exhibition hall can even be regarded as an extension of the French exhibition area.

After a short walk, a twin-engine propeller regional airliner changed Lemaire's face slightly.

MA60 airliner.

It has proven to be a strong contender for the ATR42/72 aircraft.

And because Huaxia has signed mutual recognition of airworthiness of regional aircraft with the European Union and the United States, there is no way to even set up obstacles in the formalities.

"The market for propeller regional jets is not large, and the ATR did not come this time, but fortunately, it is okay to ......"

Lemaire consoled himself with this.

He didn't take a closer look at the hundred-seat regional airliner next to him, known as the C808.

Insiders basically know that this is actually a Tupolev aircraft with a new livery.

What's more, there are no manufacturers of large regional jets of this class in the whole of Europe (and even the UK).

This should be a concern for Brazilians or Canadians.

Moving on, Le Maire's mood improved again.

"FBC1, a fighter-bomber similar to the Tornado, has too many functions and is not a threat in the field of arms sales......"

“F7MG…… It is an improved version of the Huaxia F7, that is, the Soviet-made MiG-21...... Too backward to be a threat......"

“F7F…… MiG-21 again...... Improved? ”

He looked up at the fighter with the mandibular airway in front of him and felt that the world was a little crazy.

Of course, it is not a threat to the Mirage 2000.

Not to mention the Rafale.

“FTC2000……”

Lemaire frowned, and flipped through the display board in front of him several times, as well as the plane behind the display board.

I recalled the MiG-21 in my impression.

At this time, he really wanted to arrest a Chinese colleague and torture him to ask him-

"You can also call this an improved version of the MiG-21?"

(End of chapter)