The News Starts Early Here At NBAA....

Welcome to Orlando, Florida... home to this year's National Business Aviation Association Conference and Trade Show. These are some of the recent NBAA show headlines for Monday, October 6th, 2008.

There's no denying these are different times in the world of business aviation... just as these are difficult times for the world at large. In stark contrast to the festive atmosphere seen over the past three years at NBAA, the news from the first day of this year's event was subdued by comparison, yet still cautiously optimistic... a tone NBAA President Ed Bolen says reflects a general uneasiness of the today's marketplace...

Continuing a somewhat-quirky NBAA tradition, Sunday's 'sneak-peak' press conference schedule was jam-packed with companies hoping to get their announcements out ahead of the show's formal opening ceremonies on Monday.

Gulfstream was among the first to show their hand, announcing its new G250 "super mid-size" jet. Based on the existing G200 -- itself a variant of the old IAI Astra -- the G250 appears aimed at soothing those naysayers who may quibble over whether the aircraft is a "true" Gulfstream product...

While Dassault Falcon didn't have a brand-new plane to announce, the company did reveal its plans for an upgrade package to its popular EASy flight deck, including a new synthetic vision option.

But Dassault's Olivier Villa spent most of his time talking about the recently-introduced 900LX... telling attendees the aircraft will build on Dassault's already-impressive lineup of fuel-efficient business aircraft when it enters the market in mid-2010...
 
Embraer's Luís Carlos Affonso provided an update on the Brazilian planemaker's rapidly-expanding line of business aircraft.

Starting with just one offering when Embraer launched its "executive jets" line in 2005, today the company has five new business jets in various stages of development, and a sixth in production. Embraer expects to win certification for its smallest Phenom 100 very-light jet -- and its largest plane, the Embraer-190-based Lineage 1000 -- within coming weeks.

Affonso also weighed in on the current state of the global economy... and how Embraer expects those declining fortunes to affect the market for high-dollar business aircraft. He told attendees deliveries over the next two years should be healthy, as supply catches up with demand -- but after that, the market may endure a three-year reversal in fortunes until it rebounds...

This wraps up our Aero-TV coverage of the first day of NBAA 2008. For more details on these stories and a whole lot more, be sure to check out ANN's online event coverage

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