MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

President Piñera opens world leading air and space fair in Santiago

President Piñera during his speech in the opening ceremony

Chilean President Sebastían Piñera officially inaugurated this week the biannual International Air and Space Fair, FIDAE, which this year marks the 30th anniversary of the successful air show and the 80th anniversary of the Chilean Air Force.

In the opening ceremony Piñera underlined the fact that FIDAE now figures amongst the five most import air shows of the world. He also pointed out that the FIDAE Air Show is an excellent platform to display to the public and the world that Chile can lift itself up after the devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier this year.

This year’s FIDAE has been given the slogan “Fair of Solidarity” because revenue collected will be donated to Hogar de Cristo; an organization that is currently dedicated to helping those affected by the earthquake with home building materials. Many countries have expressed their support for Chile, in light of recent events.

According to FIDAE, 428 companies from 39 countries are present this year at the air show. FIDAE is considered an excellent opportunity for companies of both international aerospace and defence to present a range of products and services. FIDAE gathers products and services from five fields: civil-commercial aviation, airport equipment and space technology, defence, aircraft maintenance and Homeland security.

One of this year’s highlights is the presentation of the F-22 Raptor, the latest fighter jet from the US Air Force, well known for its extraordinary manoeuvrability and state of the art avionics. It’s only the second time that the F-22 Raptor has been seen outside the United States; the last time was in 2008 at an air show in Farnborough, Great Britain. Each of the two jets sent to Chile costs in the range of 200 million US dollars.

Argentina, Brazil, Russia, China, Israel, Czech Republic, Germany, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, Spain, US, UK, South Korea are among the countries present at the show.