By Mike Boyer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The 45th Paris Air Show, the aviation industry's most prestigious exhibition, takes off today at LeBourget Airport with the industry in its worst slump ever.

But despite billions of dollars in industry losses, slumping traffic from fears of terrorism and SARS, and lingering political resentment between the United States and France over the Iraq war, the show must go on.

And it will. Attendance is expected to be down, flying exhibitions will be fewer and exhibitors are scaling back.

Last month, the Pentagon announced it was cutting back its presence at the international show that draws around 1,900 exhibitors and more than 120,000 trade visitors from both military and commercial aviation.

The United States has denied the cutback was a payback for the lack of French support for the war.

But after a New Jersey congressman unsuccessfully tried to block Defense Department participation in the Paris show, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, got $1 million included in funding for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to study how the Dayton Air Show could be expanded to compete with the Paris show.

Big exhibitors like GE Aircraft Engines are cool to that idea.

"Our view is that there are enough air shows already," said Rick Kennedy, spokesman for the jet engine maker.

Politics aside, business is still the important thing, say Cincinnati companies and organizations attending the weeklong trade show.

"You still have to do business," said Neil Hensley of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce part of a coalition of 11 area development agencies that have joined forces to market the Cincinnati/Dayton aerospace corridor at the show for the second time.

"The aerospace industry is important to us and this is the biggest show," he said before flying to Paris Friday.

The Partnership for Greater Cincinnati, the regional partnership, says the 50-mile corridor from north of Dayton to Northern Kentucky ranks among the 15 largest regions in the country from aerospace production.

It encompasses more than 300 companies ranging from Hartzell Propeller in Piqua to A-Carb, a unit of Messier-Bugatti, a maker of aircraft brakes in Boone County.

Evendale-based GEAE, the world's biggest jet engine builder, has scaled back its presence somewhat at this year's show. But that's because of the industry downturn and not politics, Kennedy said.

CFM International, GEAE's partnership with French engine-maker Snecma, has been one of the most successful international business alliances for decades, he said.

GEAE, which has cut several thousand jobs because of a slowdown in commercial jet engine orders, has said it doesn't expect that market to pick up until 2005.

Small firms are there

About 300 American-based companies are exhibiting at this year's show, that's down about 24 percent from the last biennial show in 2001, said Pauline Snyder, executive director of Paris Air Show USA, which assists U.S. exhibitors for show organizer Salons Internationaux de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace.

"But it's surprising the number of small companies that are participating," she said.

"Initially, some companies took a wait-and-see approach (toward attending), but in the end decided to show up."

Cincinnati Machine, the unit of Unova Inc. that specializes in metal cutting and composite-laying equipment for the aerospace industry, will attend for the first time.

"We did an evaluation and decided that if a large number of our customers were going to be there, it was a perfect opportunity to interface with them," said Chip Storie, vice president of aerospace sales.

Cincinnati Machine was once part of Milacron Inc. It has, like other machine tool builders, suffered through a five-year slump in machine sales.

But Storie said, "We figured there's no better way out of the current situation than to sell your way out."

He's booked meetings with key customers throughout the week.

The air show setting, he said, makes it easier to meet and talk with decision makers at many of the leading companies.

Michael Brand, president of Sermatech Manufacturing Group, a Blue Ash-based aerospace parts company, said "an important part of the Paris show is the relationships.

"The French like to negotiate agreements during the year, and then sign them at the show," he said.

Sermatech and its parent ,Teleflex Inc., which has exhibited at the show for years, haven't scaled back for this year's event.

"We still think there are opportunities out there in the commercial and military market," he said.

GEAE's president Dave Calhoun wavered on attending this year's show, but will be in Paris, although he won't be giving an industry briefing as in the past, said Kennedy.

There has been industry speculation that GEAE may win a big order from Emirates Airline to power Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Although there will be fewer static aircraft displays, Boeing and GEAE, which is the exclusive engine supplier for the 777-300ER, will have one of the long-range twin jets on display for the first time.

Defensive strategy

The aerospace industry may be down, but it is still a key element of the Tristate economy, said the chamber's Hensley.

Attending during lean times is as much a defensive strategy as it is an attempt to lure new investment, he said.

The region has to be at the show, because its main U.S. aerospace rivals including states such as Oklahoma, Virginia and Florida will be there

"Attending the show in lean years shows you are serious," he said.

"If you're going to be player (in the aerospace industry), you've got to be there."

E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com