LAS VEGAS—This year’s NBAA-BACE will include a mix of “wow factor” technologies and practical, hands-on events to help the private aviation community.
For starters, sustainability is going to be a big theme. All three Las Vegas airports for the first time will offer SAF. NBAA says the SAF volume is quadruple the amount from the last time NBAA-BACE was in Vegas, two years ago.
The two-day sustainably summit Oct. 17-18 is full of practical sessions, such as “What the Heck is ‘Book and Claim?’’” and a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) game show to present facts in a new way. Sessions on environmental policy and the promise of advanced air mobility (AAM) are included, too.
Speaking of AAM, Volocopter’s 2X will be flying at Henderson Executive Airport, where the static display occurs, on all three days of the show. The two-seat 2X is the predecessor of the VoloCity, which is test-flying in Germany. Volocopter aims to achieve EASA certification mid-2024 in time to fly the aircraft at the Paris Olympics.
Two aircraft are making their static display debut this year—the Airbus ACJ TwoTwenty, the corporate version of the A220, and Textron Aviation’s Beechcraft Denali, the single-engine turboprop expected to receive certification in 2025.
Embraer will showcase its new Phenom 100EX, which it announced last week. The aircraft is an upgraded version of the Phenom 100EV and includes a Runway Overrun Awareness and Alerting System, new Prodigy Touch avionics based on Garmin 3000, and a new cabin.
Bombardier will have five Global and Challenger aircraft on display, including a Challenger 300 certified pre-owned aircraft.
Dassault is consolidating its NBAA-BACE activities at the company’s static display, which will include its Falcon 2000LXS and Falcon 8X, along with a full-scale flight deck and cabin mockup of the Falcon 10X. It also will demo a new app called FalconWays designed to help pilots optimize flight routes to save fuel and lower emissions by utilizing wind data.
Gulfstream is not participating this year.
Given the workforce shortage across the aviation industry, NBAA is debuting a career fair during BACE, where 16 exhibitors will interview for a variety of private aviation jobs. The fair takes place Oct. 18 from 1-5 p.m. PDT and Oct. 19 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. PDT.
Another debut at NBAA-BACE is a maintenance competition on Oct. 18 from 12:30-4:00 p.m., where five teams of students from the Aviation Institute of Maintenance in Chicago and Las Vegas will participate in timed tasks. The students also will take part in a mini-Bombardier general familiarization course on Oct. 17 at Henderson.
NBAA does not release its expected attendance in advance, but indications point to an attendance that should be higher than last year’s. “We’re looking very strong and feeling good where we stand,” says Dan Hubbard, NBAA’s senior vice president for communications.
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