This year’s Farnborough Air Show proved once again to be an international success, and the organisers took the magnanimous step of praising the key role one its suppliers played in this achievement.

Event logistics company CEVA Showfreight worked round the clock for the show, with the lifting and positioning of a roof weighing 50 tonnes being just one of the challenges skilfully handled by its team during the construction phase.

Farnborough International Air Show is world renowned for showcasing the latest in aviation technology, and as such is totally dependent upon the experienced and skilled lifting company to position exhibits and features that are unlike those at any other event, due to their complexity, cost, size and weight.




Raising the roof: CEVA Showfreight at work


Having been the sole official freight and lifting contractor for the Farnborough International Air Show for many years, CEVA Showfreight has built up an in-depth knowledge of the customer base and their exhibits, which uniquely gives the company the experience necessary to carry out a vast number of highly technical lifts that go to make the Farnborough Air Show the visual spectacle that’s famous around the globe.

CEVA Showfreight demonstrated this at the 2008 Air Show by 'topping out' the Finmeccanica Pavilion. This involved positioning a roof structure measuring 1,500 square metres and weighing almost 50 tonnes in a lift operation that lasted eight hours. Planning had to accommodate worst case scenario weather conditions, including rainfall (affecting weight distribution) and high wind speeds, as well as potential turbulence repercussions of executive jets landing on the adjacent runway less than 200 metres away.

This operation was designed and directed by CEVA Showfreight's Ray Myles, who commented: "This lift was one in a series of challenges we handled at the show on a daily basis."

Meanwhile, Andy Coulson, operations manager for Farnborough International, said: "The Finmeccanica pavilion was always going to be an ambitious build, but we had every confidence in CEVA Showfreight's ability to deliver a safe, well managed and successful solution to what was a very difficult lifting operation."