Spent a really excellent day at Farnborough 2010. Made some good contacts and confirmed some of my impressions of the Aviation and Defence marketplace. Despite some concerns around the UK Defence Review the market is generally bouyant and some of the "stage managed" purchase announcements were very impressive.
The event was dominated by some major aircraft "launches". The Airbus A380, the Airbus A400M "Gizzly" and the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" There was also a large selection of UAVs on display - the Watchkeeper WK450, the Taranis stealthy UCAS and the Predator B.
UID part identification and RFID opportunities were noticably absent in the exhibition area - which I found strange. Considering that the DoD mandate is now well established and the F35 and Dreamliner are now coming into service using the part identification technologies. Compared with the other markets in which I operate - I found the organisational Eco-systems quite confused and uncoordinated.
However, there is an undoubted potential market for UID and RFID in aviation and defence and opportunities for Delivery Management. The UAV market also looks interesting.
I intend to follow industry developements in this field through this blog - and provide an innovation narrative on opportunities in this field
