PrÃ©parez-vous au liftoff - Westfair Communications

While its newest aerospace material mutes the roar of jet engines at takeoff, Hexcel Corp. wanted to make some noise after landing at Paris Le Bourget Airport last month.
Getting noticed is never easy at the Paris Air Show; not when more than 2,000 exhibitors vie for visibility, along with countless more visitors peeping at their wares; and not when conglomerates like Airbus use the show to reveal a jaw-dropping $76 billion in orders.
Some of that money will eventually trickle down into Connecticut”™s aerospace cluster, which revolves primarily around the Hartford conglomerate United Technologies Corp. (UTC) and its Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand and Sikorsky Aircraft.
More than 30 Connecticut companies exhibited at the biennial show, the largest and oldest in the world, including Stratford-based Sikorsky and Fairfield-based General Electric Co., whose GE Aviation unit is managed from Cincinnati.
In what could spell big orders for GE down the road, GE Aviation CEO Scott Donnelly hinted the company may enter the market for business jet engines, a focus area for UTC”™s Pratt & Whitney division.
UTC announced 30 contracts at the show worth a combined $4 billion; Stamford-based GE Commercial Aviation, which leases aircraft to other companies, used the show to reveal a $1.4 billion order for six Boeing 777 Freighter jets.
Sikorsky announced two big sales during the Paris Air Show, selling nine Black Hawk helicopters to the Bahrain government for $204 million; 15 Black Hawks to Colombia for $225 million; and eight to Jordan for an undisclosed amount. The sale negotiations with the three countries were first reported last summer by the Fairfield County Business Journal.
Sikorsky also is selling 10 helicopters to Evergreen International Aviation Inc.; two to Thailand”™s navy for $60 million, and two more to separate United Kingdom companies for an undisclosed amount.
At deadline, the state was still working to calculate a precise figure for sales to Connecticut companies generated at the Paris Air Show, said Joan McDonald, commissioner of economic and community development.
In addition to pavilions from larger companies like GE and UTC, the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) ran a booth showcasing smaller manufacturers. For $7,500, companies could share space at the Connecticut pavilion; for $2,000, CCAT would distribute promotional material and brief Paris Air Show attendees on a company”™s capabilities.
“Big companies like Pratt & Whitney have the ability to send people to the Paris Air Show, but for small companies sending even one or two people for a week is difficult,” McDonald said.
Hexcel Corp. is using the show”™s platform to publicize its new HexWeb Acousti-Cap, a composite material designed to reduce jet engine noise, a major consideration for airliners as airports look to add runways, flights and operating hours.

The product has already won plaudits in Paris ”“ in February Stamford-based Hexcel took home an innovation award at JEC Composites, a premier trade show for such vendors.
Still, given the number of exhibitors and big numbers being bandied about at Le Bourget ”“ it is not easy to get noticed.
“There is a lot of interest out there in commercial aviation orders (and) the show is catering to many different audiences,” said Hexcel spokesman Michael Bacal. “There is the business problem that your customers are always off meeting with their customers.”