In the first half of the week, aerial dispays from the Eurofighter Typhoon and F16 dominated proceedings at the 2008 Farnborough Air Show. The displays overwhelm the senses predominantly the auditory function. Elsewhere at the show 4 halls of exhibitions are accompanied by corporate suites with expansive displays like the BAE Systems exhibition which is like an exhibition hall in its own right with a multimedia display stretching panoramically across this large internal space.
The spotlight this year falls on the EADS stand involving meetings with Russell Morrison and Bill MacPherson on Galileo and Skynet 5 series satellite technology. Funded by a loan type arrangement of approximately £1bn under the PFI program, EADS Astrium have delivered three operational Skynet satellites to meet the data transfer

requirements of the MoD. High bit rate transfer enables voice communications in real time useful for amongst other things the messages home from armed forces personnel overseas. The Skynet Satellites remain the property of Astrium with a minimum term contract from the MoD lasting up until at least 2020. Whilst the basic costs of the program are met by the service provision to the MoD, Astrium’s profit will be derived by the resale of excess bandwidth either to the MoD or foreign Department’s of Defence by agreement with all parties concerned. One huge ‘Pay per View’ Satellite deal. Not being glib about this achievement the success of delivering three operational satellites under the Skynet program exceeds the minimum capacity of the original specification from the MoD. The latest Satellite payload delivered successfully, Skynet 5c is a spare, doubling as a built-in insurance policy to the program. This is a popular practise in satellite