NBAA 2008

Just returned from a busy 30 hours at NBAA in Orlando. While the economy is affecting so many sectors, especially commercial aviation, Business/Private/General aviation is generally doing well and will likely do so for several years to come, at least according to Honeywell.

For example, I stopped by the static displays at ORL where you can actually play with the planes. At the Gulfstream display, I checked out the mockup of the new G650. It goes for a cool $60M, and was only introduced in May. I asked the friendly Sales Engineer what the order backlog was. While Gulfstream does not make this public, it is "higher than any major league batting average, and sold out through 2018." Translation: something like 350-400 units. With a non-refundable deposit of $3M (the cost of a Mustang), the deposits alone are worth $1B.