Monday, February 16, 2009

A tyre burst on the concluding day of Aero India 2009 dented the image of an otherwise precision air show which spectacular air display for five days. Both the rear tyres of the Lockheed Martin F-16 IN Super Viper burst on Sunday afternoon while landing after a regular sortie.
The ill-fated two-seater aircraft was the same which India’s sole Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra co-piloted on the second day of the air show. This incident came as a major embarrassment for Lockheed Martin which is pitting the F-16 against six other international companies to bag the IAF’s 126 Multi-Role Combat Aircraft contract.
However, the Lockheed Martin put up a brave face by stating, “The tyres were changed within 30 minutes which is a perfect example of this aircraft’s maintainability.
The IAF show safety coordinators were very impressed with the rapidity with which the tyres were changed,” officials claimed.
Five days of breathtaking air display by the world’s most lethal war birds came to an end as dusk settled over the Yelahanka Air Force base on Sunday bringing down curtains on the Aero India 2009.
Over two lakh visitors attended the show which includes fifty thousand business visitors alone, exceeding the projection at the start of the show. Terming the five-day show as a grand success, organisers said the defence industries were set to get a boost. Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Deputy Director General Gurpal Singh said that 588 business-to-business (b2b) meetings took place under the umbrella of CII. These include 350 between Indian and foreign companies and the remaining between Indian business houses. The newly- introduced software, enabling online registration and enhancing business propositions among companies worldwide, proved a huge success during the show as about 600 meeting were held.
He added that the highlight of the event was the raising of Rs 7.15 crore as venture capital through business and promoting components. In total 303 companies from overseas and 289 from India participated in the air show.
16/02/09 ExpressBuzz

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