The Bavarian is really into planes. When he books a flight, he takes the aircraft model into consideration. Sometimes, he makes me play ‘guess the flight’; we live under a Tegel flight path and the game consists of guessing where passing planes are going. I always lose because The Bavarian has memorised the flight timetable. Occasionally, he will randomly inform me if a flight is delayed.
It turns out that he is not alone. This week thousands of people went to Schoenefeld to visit ILA, the Berlin aerospace fair that occurs every two years.
ILA took place at Schoenefeld, where the big new Berlin airport was supposed to open in 2011, but due to gross incompetence is still nowhere near completion. One highlight was the Emirates’ Airbus A380-800, which, The Bavarian informs me, is used for ultra long haul flights (for example Dubai to Los Angeles). People queued for hours to see the inside, which is something I will never understand, but in the end, I have to admit that the size and capabilities of the technology on show was impressive.
There were civilian and military aircraft, helicopters, drones and satellites on display on the ground as well as spectacular shows happening in the air. Here are my ILA highlights:
The US Ambassador (the guy with the jumper around his neck) and his wife arrive at the ILA
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Filed under: Berlin, Life in Berlin
