We compiled some of our favorite quotes from the Farnborough air show for this week’s Aviation Week & Space Technology:
“The aircraft goes beyond 2g—which is well within what it is designed to take. I can't say the same thing about the passengers .”
— Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief test pilot Mike Carriker on the 787's flying display
“LauncherOne will go around the world in 80 min. It's actually 90 min., but I thought that sounded better.”
— Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, unveiling the new LauncherOne smallsat system
“There will be a 319NEO for all those people that don't want to buy the CSeries.”
— John Leahy, Airbus's chief salesman
“ We were expecting a Chinese buyer, but not this one.”
— Embraer CEO Frederico Fleury Curado on Superior Aviation Beijing's move to acquire Hawker Beechcraft
“I barely escaped with my life.”
— Boeing CEO Jim McNerney on meeting with Emirates President Tim Clark, who is pushing for a next-generation 777
“It was designed a little bit like Russian roulette—except they put a bullet in every chamber.”
— Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson on “sequestration”–the across-the-board budget cuts that will occur if the U.S. Congress cannot agree on a new deficit reduction package.
•“ I made some skeptical comments about the 737 MAX, but in the last six months there have been some very significant changes made by Boeingand CFM.”Air Lease Corp. CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy
“The U.K. said that it was open to competition, but so far we have not seen any.”
— Raytheon 's Missile Systems President Taylor Lawrence on the U.K. 's sole-source awards of several weapons contracts.
“If it were not for (Airbus President and CEO) Tom Enders, we would still be giving PowerPoint presentations about what we could do.”
— Airbus Americas Chairman T. Allan McArtor
Read the full Farnborough wrap-up report in the digital edition of the magazine via Zinio or on the Aviation Week Intelligence Network.
You can also read Amy Butler’s blog on Ares for more quotes that didn’t make the print edition here.
