Africa Aerospace and Defence 2008 (AAD 2008) – The largest exhibition of Air, Sea and Land equipment on the African Continent.

By Piet van Schalkwyk - I.M.G.

 AAD 2008 was presented at AFB Ysterplaat, Cape Town, South Africa, over the period 17 to 21 September 2008.  This was the second of these huge exhibitions to be held at AFB Ysterplaat, following on from AAD 2006.  The air component of the exhibitions started many years ago as the Aviation Africa exhibition, which was hosted by the Commercial Aviation Association of South Africa.  This was later renamed Aviation Africa International, due to some international participation.  A second organisation, the South African Aerospace, Maritime and Defence related Industries Association (AMD) hosted the South African Air Force (SAAF) 75th anniversary exhibitions at AFB Waterkloof, during 1995, which was a huge success, but also incorporating a large military exhibition.

With the growing request for further military trade exhibits and an airshow, a joint venture between CAASA and AMD was therefore the obvious way forward.  The last Aviation Africa International was held in 1996.  In 1998 CAASA and AMD joined in organising an exhibition which was then named Aerospace Africa.  The venue for this exhibition was AFB Waterkloof and the amalgamation with AMD incorporated a greater military influence.

Hawk & Gripen at DEXSA 1998

 The next step was for the biennial DEXSA (Defence Exhibition of South Africa) and Aerospace Africa to be combined into Africa Aerospace & Defence, jointly hosted and presented by Armscor, AMD and CAASA.   This soon grew to the biggest civilian and military aerospace and defence-related shows to be held in Africa. The AAD is jointly hosted by Armscor, AMD, CAASA and the Department of Defence renders support to the exhibition.