Turkey, a Partner Country at the ILA Air Show, Berlin
The ILA Air Show, with Turkey participating as an official partner country for the first time, was opened by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Republic of Turkey’s Minister of Transportation Lütfi Elvan.
The Air Show saw its largest participation in its 105 year history and was followed by 3,800 media members from 55 countries. With 60 conferences from UAVs to indigenous aircraft platforms, the fair also exhibited over 300 civilian and military aircraft, helicopters and UAVs at the static display area. This year’s Fair also saw a new excitement in civil aviation with the Airbus A380, Boeing 747-8, Airbus A350 and the XWB passenger aircraft exhibited for the first time at the Air Show. The A400M, considered as Europe’s biggest military transport aircraft and the AN-124 as the world’s largest transport aircraft were among the “guests” at the Air Show in Berlin.
Turkey was represented by SSM Undersecretary Prof. Ismail Demir and under the coordination of the SSM provided a large participation at this year’s fair. TAI, Roketsan, Havelsan, Alp Aviation, STM, TÜBITAK, UZAY, BITES, Aerospace Clustering, Figes, Medel, Otafilo and Tolga Plastik, MFK Makine and KPA (Küçükadapazarlı Aerospace), Med Makine, Global Teknik, EMGE, Gür metal, Sağlam Metal, MEGE Teknik, TSI and Turkish Cargo within the Defence and Aviation Cluster (OSSA) exhibited their products and capabilities to participants and visitors at the spaces allocated to them as the fair.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen were among the officials as well as many delegations from various countries that visited the Turkey Pavilion.
Turkey also participated with many platforms at the static display area. TAI for the first time exhibited the UAV “Anka” and the “ATAK” helicopter together at a fair in Europe. Roketsan also took the opportunity to exhibit at the static stand the SOM missile, the “Cirit” missile and “Mizrak-U” and “Mizrak-O” where Roketsan signed important future collaboration agreements both with the Airbus Group and MBDA Germany.
The fair’s most exciting surprise no doubt was the Peace Eagle “Kuzey” AWACS aircraft in which the first was delivered previously to the Turkish Air Force. The Turkish Air Force’s broad participation at the fair also saw the Peace Eagle “Kuzey” put in an appearance for the first time at a defence industry fair. Aside from the Peace Eagle, a C-160 Transport Aircraft and an F-4 combat aircraft in the inventory of the Air Force were among the platforms at the Air Show. The Turkish Air Force’s pride in the sky, the Turkish Solo team was also a first at a defence industry fair. The Solo team exhibited air shows in the Berlin skies throughout the duration of the fair to the standing ovation of thousands of visitors and participants.
