While relatively low-key, there were some surprises to be mined from airframers attending this year's European business aviation convention and exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva this week. Flight International also published our first EBACE interactive daily news at the show (click the iFDN tab on the link above).
First and foremost with me were some supersonic details that Gulfstream engineering guru Pres Henne casually doled out to me as we were walking through the hall at the Palexo.
In short, Gulfstream has tested a supersonic nacelle design on a Rolls-Royce powered Gulfstream IV on the ground. More intriguing however is that Henne says the test proved that the Tay engine would be suitable for a demonstrator aircraft..
Checkout my piece in the Flight Evening News, which also talks about engineering progress at would be supersonic business jet (SSBJ) competitor, Aerion, whose engineering guru Richard Tracy also revealed more details about his design.
What didn't happen at EBACE was a grand unveiling of a radically new helicopter by Eurocopter, a possibility I had hinted at (and hoped for) in a previous blog.
On the other hand, a "Mercedes_Benz style" interior for a helo 'aint such a bad thing. See the story here by my colleague, Niall O'Keeffe.
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