AIAC ANNOUNCES EXHIBITION AND CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AT THE FARNBOROUGH INTERNATIONAL AIRSHOW 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Farnborough, Hampshire, England — July 20, 2026 — American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) in partnership with The Explorers Club, proudly announce their exhibition and celebration at the Farnborough International Airshow 2026, taking place July 20–24, 2026, at the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre in Hampshire, England.
Founded in 1948 by the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, the Farnborough International Airshow is one of the world’s premier aerospace exhibitions and the United Kingdom’s largest global aviation event. Held biennially, the 2026 edition returns as the largest and most ambitious in the airshow’s 78-year history, welcoming more than 80,000 trade visitors and delegates from over 100 countries — including government officials, military leaders, airline executives, manufacturers, suppliers, investors, and innovators from across the aerospace sector. The first four days are dedicated to industry professionals, with the final day, Pioneers of Tomorrow, open to families, students, and aviation enthusiasts.
The AIAC - Explorers Club exhibit will be located in Hall 4, Booth 41350, where representatives from across the Group’s global aerospace operations will showcase its extensive capabilities — from advanced precision forging, fabrication, machining, coating, and assembly to the design of satellite propulsion systems. The following AIAC companies will be featured:
Consolidated Industries Inc. — Precision closed-die forgings for aerospace and defense
Superalloy Manufacturing Solutions Corporation (SMSC) — High-tolerance machining of superalloy jet engine components using ECM and advanced CNC
Arnprior Aerospace Inc. — Fabrication and machining of complex aerostructures and subassemblies
Coating Technology, Inc. — Specialized plating and powder coating for mission-critical aerospace components
Craft Machine Works — Structural fabrications and large-format precision machining for defense and energy sectors
Amtech — 3-, 4-, and 5-axis machining for aerospace and naval platforms
Vermont Aerospace Industries — Precision components for commercial and military aviation
Lenape Forged Products Corporation — Forgings up to 20,000 pounds for aerospace and defense
Bradford Space — Satellite propulsion systems and subsystems, including a leading line of green propulsion technologies
Neotiss — Titanium and stainless steel welded tubes for aerospace, nuclear power, desalination, chemical, and automotive markets
Titanium Fabrication Corporation and Ti Titanium Ltd. — Precision fabrication of titanium for the defense, power generation, and other industries
Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH — Designer and manufacturer of portable power supplies for defense, disaster relief, and humanitarian applications
A Centennial Celebration of Rocketry
On Tuesday, July 21, 2026, AIAC and The Explorers Club will host a private reception commemorating a landmark anniversary in the history of flight: the centennial of the world’s first liquid-fuelled rocket. On March 16, 1926, in Auburn, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert H. Goddard launched the first rocket powered by liquid propellant — a modest 2.5-second flight that opened the pathway to modern spaceflight. One hundred years later, AIAC companies build the precision-engineered components that carry that legacy forward, from jet engines and aerostructures to booster rockets, space capsules, satellites, and propulsion systems.
A Partnership with The Explorers Club
AIAC has forged a deep partnership with The Explorers Club, reflecting the corporation’s commitment to advancing human knowledge and exploration. Founded in 1904, The Explorers Club is a global fellowship dedicated to scientific exploration and field research. Its legendary members have included Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin. Members of the club have been the first to reach the North Pole, the South Pole, the summit of Mount Everest, the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, and the surface of the Moon.
L. M. Levie, Chairman of AIAC, serves as both a Member of the Board of Trustees and Poet Laureate of The Explorers Club, embodying the organization’s mission to promote courage and boundless discovery. AIAC and its affiliates — SuperAlloy Manufacturing Solutions, Bradford Space, Champlain Cable, and Canadian Kraft Paper Industries — are proud Partners of The Explorers Club.
AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie stated:
“One hundred years ago, in a quiet field in Auburn, Massachusetts, a single rocket rose for two and a half seconds against the pull of the earth. It carried no passenger and crossed no great distance — and yet it carried the whole of the future with it. For in that brief ascent, Dr. Robert Goddard proved what humankind had until then only dared to dream: that the heavens are not a ceiling above us, but a frontier before us.
We gather at Farnborough not merely to mark the passage of a century, but to answer the summons that century issued. Let us be clear-eyed about the task. The road from that Massachusetts field to the far reaches of the solar system was never paved by those who asked whether it could be done, but by those who resolved that it must be done. Progress has never been the gift of the timid; it has always been the labor of the bold.
The men and women of AIAC have chosen that labor. We forge the engines that lift aircraft into the sky and the components that carry rockets beyond it; we shape the metal that holds the satellite to its orbit and the capsule to its course. We take up this work not because it is easy, but precisely because it is hard — for the hard things are the things worth doing, and a civilization is measured not by the comforts it guards, but by the frontiers it dares to cross.
To stand here alongside The Explorers Club — that fellowship of the men and women who reached the poles, scaled the summits, sounded the deepest trenches, and walked upon the Moon — is to be reminded that exploration is not a chapter in our history, but the engine of it. Let others wait for the future to arrive. We intend to build it. And a hundred years from now, when a new generation looks back upon this age as we look back upon Goddard’s, let it be said that we did not flinch, that we did not falter, and that we handed to those who followed a sky with no ceiling and a horizon without end.”
John Wilbur, Managing Director of AIAC, commented:
“Farnborough is the world’s foremost stage for demonstrating the depth of what our companies do. From titanium aerostructures and superalloy engine components to satellite propulsion systems, AIAC supplies the mission-critical hardware behind modern aerospace and defense. We are proud to bring that precision-manufacturing capability to Farnborough 2026 and to connect with the partners shaping the next century of flight.”
About American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a diversified industrial group with manufacturing, distribution, and administrative sites in 24 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia-New Zealand. AIAC has acquired and grown non-core subsidiaries and divisions of Boeing, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Johnson Controls, Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Visteon, Carlyle, KKR, Ahlstrom, Novellis, Tolko, Groupe Suez, Groupe Rexel, and many other leading multinational corporations.
AIAC companies serve companies and governmental entities worldwide in all major sectors, including aviation, space, defense, automotive, truck, rail, marine, petrochemical, solar, nuclear, civil engineering, logistics, agriculture, infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, dredging, disaster relief, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, AIAC companies are exclusive, authorized distributors of leading branded industrial products and serve as critical suppliers for the construction of major airports, schools, hospitals, performing arts and sports centers, offices and hotels throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. AIAC is a major manufacturer of materials for green houses globally, building, street, and highway signage in Europe, and a distributor of electrical products throughout France.
Of note, AIAC purchased Boeing Canada in 2005 and has produced over 10,000 unique components for every Boeing jet plane ever since, reliably serving Boeing from manufacturing facilities in North America. A leader in ultra-high precision jet engine component manufacturing, AIAC companies produce 2,200 fan blades for each jet engine produced by GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, and Honeywell.
AIAC companies actively support exploration into outer space, manufacturing critical components for launching and propelling spacecraft and satellites. AIAC customers in this sector include NASA, SpaceX, the European Space Agency, Blue Origin, and Boeing. AIAC companies also lead in the design and manufacture of undersea umbilical cables for worldwide oceanographic research.
AIAC companies produce the critical automotive wire and cable for Tesla, GM, Ford, Chrysler-Fiat, Toyota, and Nissan and for the New York and Atlanta Subways. In connection with its kraft paper manufacturing interests in Canada and the US, AIAC sustainably manages 22 million acres of Manitoba, Canada forestland, an area equivalent in size to the nation of Hungary. AIAC affiliate, Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH, located in Germany, designs, manufactures and distributes high performance, emergency portable power generators utilized in global conflict zones and during major natural disasters.
For further information, see: www.aiac.com
AIAC Philanthropy
AIAC and the AIAC Foundation support a wide range of nonprofit, nonsectarian, bipartisan organizations which promote international conflict resolution, disaster relief, economic development, environmental sustainability, exploration, and the performing arts. The exploration-focused nonprofit organizations which they actively support include The Explorers Club, the National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Mission Blue, the Jane Goodall Institute, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Space Society, and the United States Space Foundation.
AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie is a Member of the Board of Trustees of The Explorers Club, its Poet Laureate, and a Member of its Annual Dinner Committee. AIAC and its affiliates, Bradford Space, Canadian Kraft Paper Industries, SuperAlloy Manufacturing Solutions, and Champlain Cable are Partners of The Explorers Club and Sponsors of Oceans Week.
For further information, see: www.aiac.com | https://www.aiac.com/our-values
About The Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is an American-based, international, multidisciplinary professional society with the mission of promoting and supporting scientific exploration and field study on land, sea, and in outer space. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for explorers and scientists worldwide. Members of the club have been the first to explore the North Pole, South Pole, Mount Everest, the Mariana Trench, and to walk on the Moon. The club’s notable current members or honorees include Buzz Aldrin, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, Grand Duke Guillaume V of Luxembourg, Sir Richard Branson, Ken Griffin, James Cameron, Ray Dalio, and Wendy Schmidt.
In years past, prominent members have included Sir Ernest Shackleton, President Theodore Roosevelt, Sir Edmund Hillary, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Jim Lovell, Thor Heyerdahl, Walter Cronkite, Prince Philip – Duke of Edinburgh, and Jane Goodall. The Explorers Club’s historic clubhouse, at 46 East 70th Street in New York City, is a museum and monument to the “Famous Firsts,” the greatest explorers and expeditions of all time.
For further information, see: www.explorers.org
About the Farnborough International Airshow
Founded in 1948 by the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, the Farnborough International Airshow is one of the world’s premier aerospace exhibitions and the United Kingdom’s largest global aviation event. Held biennially at Farnborough in Hampshire, England, the Airshow serves as a meeting place for leaders in commercial aviation, defense, advanced air mobility, and space technology.
Over the decades, Farnborough has become synonymous with innovation. Many of the aviation industry’s most significant commercial aircraft programs, defense technologies, satellite systems, and aerospace partnerships have been unveiled or announced at the exhibition. Beyond the spectacular flying displays, the exhibition facilitates billions of dollars in commercial agreements while showcasing the latest advances in sustainable aviation, defense capabilities, autonomous systems, advanced manufacturing, and space exploration.
Media Contact
Isabel Carro-Toro, Vice President
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
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