Invest KOREA

South Korea's Gyeonggi provincial government wrapped up the nation's biggest aviation exhibition on Tuesday with the event drawing a record number of visitors, organizers said.

   More than 430,000 visitors were treated to the six-day G-Global Aviation exhibition that featured a variety of participatory programs and air shows focused on the theme "Drawing Dreams and Wishes in the Sky."

   The number of visitors for this year's exhibition was up some 30,000 people from the previous year, organizers said.

   Organized by Gyeonggi Province and the city of Ansan, about 42 kilometers south of Seoul, the G-Global Aviation event also drew 150 companies for an aircraft exhibition introducing their advanced aviation-related products, up from 99 companies that attended a year earlier.

  About 1,500 products, including high-tech electronic aviation systems and parts for air weapons, were on display during the exhibition.

   Helped by organizers' efforts to advertise the event through online social networking sites, more than 410,000 tickets were sold before the exhibition officially launched last Thursday.

   On the opening day alone, the exhibition drew a total of 152,624 people, organizers said.

   During the exhibition, the Black Eagles, the aerobatics team for the South Korean Air Force, performed formation flying with T-50 supersonic trainer jets, and the opening day show also featured other world-class aerobatic pilots.

   The Global Air Show Team, comprising accomplished and experienced pilots from Britain and Lithuania, was among the most outstanding aerobatics teams in the event.

  Despite the success of the event, organizers' enthusiasm for the G-Global Aviation, now in its third year, was partly dampened by a crash of light aircraft and a low number of foreign visitors.

   The aircraft crashed Saturday while performing a stunt flying routine. There were no injuries among the crowd because the pilot managed to crash into an empty site near the show.

   The crash broke the aircraft's propeller but its other parts remained intact. The pilot suffered minor injuries to his waist, according to organizers.

Source: Yonhap News (May 10, 2011)