Wings India 2018(https://www.wings-india.in/)
is a biennial aviation event held in Hyderabad, India. The event is an
international exhibition and conference on Civil Aviation. The venue of
Hyderabad is a good choice given the place is ideal for aviation (flying). Now
how did I conclude that? Well, the place has 2 international standard
aerodromes(VOHY &VOHS) as many as 4
flying training organizations for civil aviation, headquarters to a regional
carrier, training centre of national carrier, home base to many airlines and
main training base for airforce cadets. Not to forget the weather is suitable
for flying all through the year. The
venue - Begumpet airport(VOHY) is right in the centre of city with a large
runway(3230m) also has a long stopway – good for landing large aircrafts(A380
landed for previous shows). Ya Ya, I am bragging about it cause I trained at
this airfield 😇. But overall, it’s a great venue for such an event!
Next, the static display of aircrafts: This year the static
display involved many business aircrafts (large, medium and small), Made in
India aircraft, training aircrafts, glider, and chopper. The static display was
extremely short on numbers. Quality though was very good among those on
display. However, the arrangement of the static display aircrafts is not
impressive – Needs proper placement taking all the necessary precautions.
Then, the Stalls: On display were Aircraft Manufacturers,
Airlines, Training/Education Organizations, Component Manufacturers, Infrastructure
Providers, Service Providers, Aviation Technology, Publishers, Government etc.
For impressions: let me elaborate with respect to the type of audience. If you
are an aircraft or parts manufacturer, there were few stalls to suit you. If you
are an airline, there were few stalls to impress. If you are a service
provider, you could talk with some of them. If you are an infrastructure
provider, you could explore different ways. If you are a pilot, there are lots of stalls
to talk to. If you are an aviation enthusiast you could explore a lot. If you
are an exhibiter, unless policy related, you would be disappointed. Having been
to many shows though in a different domain, I could make out the audience was
not up to the mark including myself 😉.
Finally the Air Show – there wasn’t any 😟. For generic audience
it was a massive let down who were wowed in previous shows by aerobat teams. On
retrospect, I looked at the wording of the event and there was no mention to be
fair. However, that does not explain why have two days of the show, dedicated
for general audience? Realistically, given the populated area surrounding the
aerodrome, very high g maneuvers is not the recipe. It must be addressed though
to garner good interest.
Overall, there are many positives and few negatives. It was
a good balance of international and local participants (Exhibiters) though in
limited numbers. The quantity could be scaled for next shows. The quality of
Exhibiters was good. The quality of audience needs to be improved by having
smaller events. The conferences were limited at policy level and can be
improved to include all sort of audience.
P.S: I steered clear of mentioning any brand to sound
neutral for this blog.
