From The Archives: 1974 Marks The First Farnborough International Show

"For more than 50 years, Farnborough has been an exhibit of British equipment only. 1974 marks the first Farnborough International Show."

So proclaimed an advertisement in our July 29,1974 edition, touting an upcoming special issue focused on the air show. 

The statement was somewhat misleading: the show had only taken place at Farnborough since 1948, and foreign aircraft were admitted starting in 1966 - as long as they included UK-made components. But 1974 was the first time Farnborough was a truly international air show. Ironically, the event opened several weeks later against a backdrop of nationalization. 

"Great Britain's aerospace industry, long the dominant design and production force in Europe, is facing a crisis of confidence among export customers almost entirely focused on a plan by the Labor government to nationalize it into a single state-owned corporation," the magazine reported on Sep. 2. 

"The plan contains no specific aims of what industry will do when the state takes over." Leading Labor officials, who were also threatening big cuts to UK defense spending, declined to discuss the nationalization plan with Aviation Week "on the grounds that they were too busy to analyze the document for the public."

See the advertisement promoting the Special Show Issue on page 52.

See the full issue of the July 29, 1974 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology 

Sep. 2 issue - Nationalization Clouds Industry Future on page 42

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