Three Decades of ShowNews
spectacular (and pre-Photoshop!) Mike Vines shot of Antonov An-225 Mriya over The Swan pub on final approach to Farnborough in early September 1990
flying a Cirrus SR22 in Dubai, November 2007
posted 11 March 2021
Inadvertently insulting the future president of Indonesia (he was thin-skinned, Mr Habibie) at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand, dazzling corporate guests on the old Bugis Street in Singapore (and with Fish Head curry at the Banana Leaf Apolo), watching one of our guys score a 7-7-7 jackpot on his first pull on one of those comedy giant slot machines on the Las Vegas strip ($1,000, ka-ching!) – just a few of many memories from 30 years with Aviation Week ShowNews.
Barreling on the autobahn between EBACE 2008 in Geneva and ILA in Berlin was a good one too, as was combining Zhuhai and Dubai on one trip (with a personal detour to Moscow) later that year. The singular junket to Santiago in spring 2002 was another standout.
G550 Treat
A flight from Singapore to New Jersey in a Gulfstream G550 courtesy Honeywell after EBACE 2006 was a treat, as was flying left seat in a Cirrus (”You’re the pilot,” said the instructor) after Dubai 2007. (A Cirrus SR22, I think it was. They said Angelina Jolie had one. Happily we didn’t need the parachute.)
Bob Searles was good enough to sign me on for Singapore 1990 after I’d mooched some computer time at his newsroom at Paris the previous June. I was rocking a little ponytail then and he said later that he almost told me to get lost. Anyway, I guess he liked the Performance Materials report I slammed out about composites at Paris because he gave me a shot in Singapore. Or maybe it was because I was in southeast Asia anyway.
Lost in Paris and the Good Bob Searles
(I’d gone to my first Paris show in 1987 for Performance Materials, arrived au Bourget and said, “Now what?” It was cold and wet, and I hung out with Del Naser and colleagues at the Alcoa chalet, as they were far more hospitable than the people at my own company’s digs [There, I told a door goon, “I work for the company.” He said, “Don’t we all?” – and didn’t let me in.]
(I stumbled upon the show’s various dailies, would scan them for items on aircraft built with composites, then visit the various stands and get the dope on AS-4 or IM-7, maybe even T-1000 or other forms of carbon fiber in use on those planes. In 1989 I realized that one of the dailies was in fact ours, McGraw-Hill’s, and I introduced myself to Mr. Searles.)
Thus was my life changed. Visiting Hong Kong as a tourist, my honorary cousin at the Asian Wall Street Journal said she had a fax for me, “some guy asking you to work at the Singapore air show” (it was called Asian Aerospace then). I chiseled airfare from Bangkok, worked the show and did ok. Singapore 1990 led to Farnborough 1990, then NBAA in Anaheim later that year.
Enter John Morris
There were bumps, like getting dropped from Paris 1991 because of the recession (I went anyway) and the same thing happening with Farnborough in 1992. Again, I went anyway, as Gentleman Jack Olcott, the publisher at the time, was gracious enough to let me keep the tickets. Then it went quiet.
“ShowNews is back!” I told my office mates in San Francisco on the occasion of another happy fax, inviting me to Singapore 1994 under a new editor, John Morris. McGraw-Hill even popped for business class tickets (the last time for that).
My main memory of Singapore 1994 beyond a high-end Orchard Road hotel, is of a Malay guy at the old Club Satay hawker stands telling John Morris that John Morris had given him a $2 bill toward our tab when John Morris had in fact given him a twenty. Both stuck to their guns for a while. Then the Malay’s eyes shifted. John had faced him down. John was formidable, and would remain so for more then two decades of our collaboration.
The Promise of Routes
Paris 2017 saw the celebration of 500 ShowNews issues with John as the boss, and through Singapore 2020, when covid shut us down, there were at least 20 more. Aviation Week’s new owners, UK-based Informa, also acquired the Routes airline-airport conferences, and invested in bringing ShowNews to those. I was the sixth man on a five-man crew so missed out on World Routes in Adelaide in fall 2019, but I got to run two issues at Routes Americas in Indianapolis before high-tailing it to Singapore for our last hurrah. Bergen, Milan and Bogota were on the Routes calendar, all scotched by the virus. After the mundane (poor us) cycle of Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, Orlando and Las Vegas every two years, the new variety would have been great. Alas.
Other Highlights
Inadvertently insulting the future president of Indonesia (he was thin-skinned, Mr Habibie) at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand, dazzling corporate guests on the old Bugis Street in Singapore (and with Fish Head curry at the Banana Leaf Apolo), watching one of our guys score a 7-7-7 jackpot on his first pull on one of those comedy giant slot machines on the Las Vegas strip ($1,000, ka-ching!) – just a few of many memories from 30 years with Aviation Week ShowNews.
Barreling on the autobahn between EBACE 2008 in Geneva and ILA in Berlin was a good one too, as was combining Zhuhai and Dubai on one trip (with a personal detour to Moscow) later that year. The singular junket to Santiago in spring 2002 was another standout.
G550 Treat
A flight from Singapore to New Jersey in a Gulfstream G550 courtesy Honeywell after EBACE 2006 was a treat, as was flying left seat in a Cirrus (”You’re the pilot,” said the instructor) after Dubai 2007. (A Cirrus SR22, I think it was. They said Angelina Jolie had one. Happily we didn’t need the parachute.)
Bob Searles was good enough to sign me on for Singapore 1990 after I’d mooched some computer time at his newsroom at Paris the previous June. I was rocking a little ponytail then and he said later that he almost told me to get lost. Anyway, I guess he liked the Performance Materials report I slammed out about composites at Paris because he gave me a shot in Singapore. Or maybe it was because I was in southeast Asia anyway.
Lost in Paris and the Good Bob Searles
(I’d gone to my first Paris show in 1987 for Performance Materials, arrived au Bourget and said, “Now what?” It was cold and wet, and I hung out with Del Naser and colleagues at the Alcoa chalet, as they were far more hospitable than the people at my own company’s digs [There, I told a door goon, “I work for the company.” He said, “Don’t we all?” – and didn’t let me in.]
(I stumbled upon the show’s various dailies, would scan them for items on aircraft built with composites, then visit the various stands and get the dope on AS-4 or IM-7, maybe even T-1000 or other forms of carbon fiber in use on those planes. In 1989 I realized that one of the dailies was in fact ours, McGraw-Hill’s, and I introduced myself to Mr. Searles.)
Thus was my life changed. Visiting Hong Kong as a tourist, my honorary cousin at the Asian Wall Street Journal said she had a fax for me, “some guy asking you to work at the Singapore air show” (it was called Asian Aerospace then). I chiseled airfare from Bangkok, worked the show and did ok. Singapore 1990 led to Farnborough 1990, then NBAA in Anaheim later that year.
Enter John Morris
There were bumps, like getting dropped from Paris 1991 because of the recession (I went anyway) and the same thing happening with Farnborough in 1992. Again, I went anyway, as Gentleman Jack Olcott, the publisher at the time, was gracious enough to let me keep the tickets. Then it went quiet.
“ShowNews is back!” I told my office mates in San Francisco on the occasion of another happy fax, inviting me to Singapore 1994 under a new editor, John Morris. McGraw-Hill even popped for business class tickets (the last time for that).
My main memory of Singapore 1994 beyond a high-end Orchard Road hotel, is of a Malay guy at the old Club Satay hawker stands telling John Morris that John Morris had given him a $2 bill toward our tab when John Morris had in fact given him a twenty. Both stuck to their guns for a while. Then the Malay’s eyes shifted. John had faced him down. John was formidable, and would remain so for more then two decades of our collaboration.
The Promise of Routes
Paris 2017 saw the celebration of 500 ShowNews issues with John as the boss, and through Singapore 2020, when covid shut us down, there were at least 20 more. Aviation Week’s new owners, UK-based Informa, also acquired the Routes airline-airport conferences, and invested in bringing ShowNews to those. I was the sixth man on a five-man crew so missed out on World Routes in Adelaide in fall 2019, but I got to run two issues at Routes Americas in Indianapolis before high-tailing it to Singapore for our last hurrah. Bergen, Milan and Bogota were on the Routes calendar, all scotched by the virus. After the mundane (poor us) cycle of Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, Orlando and Las Vegas every two years, the new variety would have been great. Alas.
Other Highlights
- Indian leg-wrestling on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas (tattoos there too)
- comparing old IDs and marveling that Paul Brou was still wearing the same shirt as could be seen on an eight-year-old pass
- interviewing Emirates founder Maurice Flanagan in Dubai and his making sure that I’d fly home to San Francisco in business class (I’d enjoyed it on the way out too, but with standby anxiety)
- drinking great beer at centuries-old breweries in Bamberg as part of our Geneva-Berlin road trip between EBACE and ILA in May 2008
- drinking great beer in the biergarten at the lovely refurbished Schloss Diedersdorf in Großbeeren in the former East Germany
- drinking great wine on a boat trip on the Seine
- eating wonderful dinners with garrulous generous Bill Reavis of Honeywell at the Restaurant Laurent and the Jules Verne in Paris, at Andre’s in Las Vegas – and many more
- bowling in Atlanta
- basking on the beach at Sentosa prior to getting down to work in Singapore
- flaming “potence” beef dinners at the Grizzly in Geneva (before McGraw-Hill tightened the money screws)
- seaside lunch at Viña del Mar, Chile (and a hike in the Andes)
- seeing The Tommy Castro Band (don’t get me started) with the ShowNews crew including Perry Bradley in Long Beach, and then again in Anaheim a year later – a certain B.R. over-indulged both times
- enjoying the company of the inimitably eccentric Bob Rodwell through the years, even as he slipped into his bicycle- and passport-losing dotage, yet still turned out sparkling gems for the magazine
- learning to his chagrin that one of our crew was related to an enormously famous rocker, and getting to say, “Hey Rob, I hear your cousin’s in a band…”
- asking for romaine lettuce (hopeless) repeatedly at the inn at Worplesdon, as an Asian guest asked repeatedly for rice (also hopeless)
- driving rental cars on ShowNews’s dime in Paris, Singapore and England, and Switzerland-Germany, before the McGraw-Hill bean counters started worrying about insurance
- enjoying the Paris Air Show from newsrooms on the Left Bank as Informa realized there was no point paying for a chalet for non-reporters – 2017 and even better digs in 2019. Informa popped for a better hotel, too
Piellisch pedantic personal history,
after 30 years full of holes,
inaccuracies certain too
(Paris 1989 – meeting Bob Searles au Bourget, Big Aaly and the Hotel du Quai Voltaire)
after 30 years full of holes,
inaccuracies certain too
(Paris 1989 – meeting Bob Searles au Bourget, Big Aaly and the Hotel du Quai Voltaire)
- Singapore 1990 – first ShowNews for rp, followed by ~a month in Auroville
- Farnborough September 1990 – Mickey Mouse ears photo in prep for NBAA in Anaheim
- NBAA New Orleans 1990 – toured the show floor with Judith, dinner avec les Brou
- Heli-Expo 1991 – Anaheim (pretty sure) poor salad at pretentious Jax, Paul Brou concurs
- Paris 1991 – Piellisch cut late, goes anyway, writes for Atlantic (cutting room floor), Judith comes along, effective end of Judith+Richie
- NBAA Houston 1991 (no Piellisch?)
- Heli-Expo 1992 – (?)
- Singapore 1992 – mildew hotel, Marielza joins, India
- Farnborough September 1992 – Piellisch cut late, goes anyway (?), stays in serious dump in London
- NBAA 1992 in Dallas (Piellisch?)
- Paris 1993 – no show for Piellisch
- NBAA 1993 Atlanta – no show for Piellisch (?)
- Singapore 1994 – ShowNews returns! business class to Changi, first SN for John Morris, pukka hotel on Orchard Road, impromptu lobby meeting with Gazzola
- Farnborough September 1994 – final Farnborough with Mark Draught
- Paris 1995 – exile to the cornfields, Malaysia “composites” reception where wild John interviews Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad (merely the Prime Minister of Malaysia), Indonesia's Habibe there too, crazy early AM departure to ???
- NBAA 1995 – Las Vegas (Hampton Inn?)
- Singapore 1996 – Golden Landmark (Number One), chilling with Perry prior to India
- Farnborough September 1996 – should have brought Kirk
- NBAA 1996 Orlando – first show for Kirk
- Paris 1997 – back to Jardin d’Eiffel, terrible late nights, midnight trudge home along the Champs-Elysées
- NBAA 1997 – Dallas – John at the Hubcap?
- Singapore 1998 – first time at Mercure (?) India with Big Aaly – and Judith
- Farnborough 1998 – Loch Ness? Cristina Filippina?
- NBAA 1998 – Las Vegas (Hampton Inn?)
- Paris 1999 – Jasmin comes along (worked for ShowNews! after Bishopstock in England and Cardiff with Billy Lewis), drunk driving in the tunnel nearing the Périphérique, Napoleon’s Fedora courtesy David
- NBAA 1999 – Atlanta: bowling (?)
- Singapore 2000 – Jasmin: India too
- Farnborough 2000 – Loch Ness??? first for Mara? Last stay in Worplesdon?
- NBAA 2000 – New Orleans, Giants and A’s both lose in first round of playoffs
- EBACE 2001 – the first EBACE, round hotel in Meyrin: Lori comes along
- Paris 2001 – Jasmin prior to show, first stay at the Ibis Place Cambronne (aka Place Merde); Ron Hacker in Norway, Seisler/ENGVA in Malmö
- NBAA 2001 – New Orleans canceled behind 9/11! pero mucho dinero behind pre-write, de-write and re-write for December make-up show
- FIDAE 2002 – Santiago, Chile: Lori comes along
- Singapore 2002 – India
- EBACE 2002 – Crowne Plaza (noisy) -- – ENGVA in Nice, Olya in Paris and to Biarritz
- Farnborough 2002 – Woking?
- NBAA 2002 – Orlando
- EBACE 2003 – first at the Ibis?
- Paris 2003 – Ibis Place Merde, Perry Bradley with brood, Moscow afterwards with Bolshoi, Ismayalova, Volodya’s ‘Chocolat’ restaurant
- NBAA 2003 – Orlando
- Singapore 2004 – India after
- Heli-Expo 2004 (?) – cheap digs on the Strip, Paul Brou reconciles with John
- Farnborough 2004 – first at Aldershot?
- ILA 2004 – Mahlow
- NBAA 2004 – Olya comes, we go to Utah
- Paris 2005 – Ibis Place Merde toujours
- NBAA 2005 – Orlando (no New Orleans behind Katrina)
- Singapore 2006 – (last year in the trailers) India after
- EBACE 2006 – GVA-MMU via G550, JFK-PHX via jetBlue
- Farnborough 2006 – record heat!
- ILA 2006 –Tempelhof, stogies with Rob, last year at Mahlow
- NBAA 2006 – Orlando: Warren Buffett’s wallet massaged?
- EBACE 2007 --
- Paris 2007 – Ibis Place Merde (Place Cambronne)
- Dubai 2007 – Ibis WTC, flew Cirrus turboprop, Maybachs but no Prii at Middle East International Motor Show
- NBAA 2007 – Atlanta
- Singapore 2008 – A380 on the street! First year as Singapore Airshow at Changi Exhibition Centre .. India after
- EBACE 2008 –to Geneva from Annalloyd in Vegas
- ILA 2008 – from Geneva to Berlin via Bamberg (and on to Rio);
- Farnborough 2008 – Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor flies once
- NBAA 2008 – Orlando as New Orleans is bumped for fears of marauding post-Katrina African-Americans
- Zhuhai 2008 – followed by Hong Kong-Moscow and Dubai
- MEBA (Dubai) 2008
- Paris 2009 – Ibis Clignancourt followed by NGVs in Madrid
- NBAA 2009 – Orlando
- Dubai 2009 – Emirates A380 to JFK (?)
- Singapore 2010 – Mercure (?), India after
- EBACE 2010 –
- ILA 2010 – beer garden lodge
- Farnborough 2010 – Maine afterwards
- NBAA 2010 – Atlanta: pleasant walks with Brendan Gallagher, John & Maureen romance divulged
- Zhuhai 2010 – EVS-25 in Shenzhen
- MEBA 2010 – Dubai
- EBACE 2011 – last stay at the airport Ibis, Jim Swickert there, last ever for Brendan Gallagher (very sad)
- Paris 2011 – Ibis Clignancourt
- NBAA 2011 – Las Vegas – Monday night pizza party in Kirk’s suite
- Dubai 2011 – Maurice Flanagan of Emirates, biz class Dubai-SFO direct (?)
- Singapore 2012 – Ibis Bencoolen, no India
- EBACE 2012 – first at the Budget Ibis – Perry Bradley of GE on hand?
- Farnborough 2012
- NBAA 2012 – Orlando: Romo fans Cabrera for Series win; New Orleans-Gulfport stopover
- EBACE 2013 –
- Paris 2013 – Ibis Clignancourt
- NBAA 2013 – Las Vegas – adjoining room & suite?
- Dubai 2013 – no biz class (?)
- Singapore 2014 – Ibis Bencoolen, no India
- EBACE 2014 –
- Farnborough 2014 – blew off Rob
- NBAA 2014 – Orlando –
- EBACE 2015
- Paris 2015 – Piellisch skips (misses famous rain)
- NBAA 2015 – Las Vegas with Piellisch as lowly writer, interview with Jeff Pino, who praises, John praises too, Pino later dies
- Singapore 2016 – no India, Piellisch as mere writer again but tapped for left seat at NBAA
- EBACE 2016 – back to Geneva with a raise!
- Farnborough 2016 – silly play with Polly, rp leaves a day earlier than some as not needed for web-only Day 4
- NBAA 2016 Orlando – John manages front man Piellisch by phone and email
- EBACE 2017 – routine, save for scorpion in shirt at SJO behind travel on NatureAir connecting to Iberia to Geneva via Madrid
- Paris 2017 – très possible Best Ever, worked in the 6th, non to the show did we go
- NBAA 2017 Las Vegas – Piellisch with infected ankle groks Emergency Room, Olya comes and we visit Utah and Grand Canyon
- Singapore 2018 –India prior to Singapore Airshow, stops in Los Angeles too and quality time with Becky, visit to Calstart in Pasadena
- EBACE 2018 – invite received March 5, Olya to join, big trip to Italy!
- Farnborough 2018 – books done often early, John happy, walked to the hotel one evening, likely won’t again
- NBAA 2018 – Orlando – biggest event was Scot falling down and wrecking up his shoulder
- EBACE 2019 – largely routine, two dinners with Claude the only ventures downtown; sick afterward and was pretty much miserable until well on the way to Paris just two-plus weeks later
- Paris 2019 – even better than PAS 2017 as again, no to the show had we to go, instead toiled at the terrific Coworking chez Le Bloc right across the street from our hotel .. great meals and walks, a boat ride on the Seine, a Lime scooter ride on the last evening, big regret was not staying out to see Perry
- NBAA 2019 – routine, a bit of a cold, new iPhone bought hanging with P.B.
- Routes Americas 2020 in Indianapolis in February – never left the Marriott
- Singapore 2020 immediately after Routes Americas in Indianapolis, worked in a haze from Ibis Bencoolen, post-show India visit made woeful by bad hip
- John Morris announces retirement on September 14, 2020