I am sitting here after day two of the Farnborough Air Show 2010. The aircraft that has proven to be the talk of the show this year (with good reason) is the Boeing 787. And let’s face it, it looks pretty cool. But the truly revolutionary nature of this aircraft was made very clear when it took off an hour ago and made almost no noise at all. A few years ago, when the Airbus A380 took off from Farnborough for the first time, I thought that was quiet. Now, there is a new standard.

Shortly after it took off, it did a fly past of the airfield escorted by two spitfires. The noise of those two comparatively small aircraft drowned out the 787. This is one quiet aircraft. Willie Walsh, British Airways’ CEO was with me at the time and was suitably impressed – specially as he has ordered 24 of them for BA!