Aerospace innovation on display: AI and future technologies at the 2025 Paris Air Show

The 55th edition of the International Paris Air Show 2025 at Le Bourget Parc des Expositions started on a somber note due to the crash of Air India Flight 171 just a few days before the show’s opening. The Boeing 787-8 accident near India’s Ahmedabad Airport claimed the lives of 241 passengers and crew plus 19 people on the ground. Boeing officials cancelled their Paris press conferences and deferred commercial aircraft sales announcements. However, on the eve of the show, the company released its 20-year forecast showing steady demand for 43,600 new airplanes. About 80% of jetliners now in service will be replaced during that time with more than 21,000 new aircraft offering improved fleet efficiency and greater capability.

In line with previous forecasts, Boeing’s 2025 Commercial Market Outlook (CMO) states emerging markets are driving air travel growth, fueled by consumers, competition, and investment. The forecast also predicts “airplane supply will catch up with market demand around the end of the decade, enabling carriers to increasingly renew and grow their fleets” – a tacit acknowledgment of supply chain stress and the company’s slow progress forward after problems with its 737 MAX aircraft and delays from the machinists’ strike.

The global fleet will nearly double to more than 49,600 commercial airplanes as airlines add capacity to meet travel demand, which is more than doubling in size as it continues to outpace global economic growth. While demand for single-aisle jets has grown six percentage points from last year to 33,285 units, the global passenger widebody fleet is expected to increase to approximately 8,320 airplanes, up substantially from last year’s prediction for about 4,400 aircraft. This growth is driven by carriers in emerging markets expanding their long-haul fleets.

New deliveries of widebody jet through 2044 are predicted to reach 7,815, with regional jets at 1,545 and freighters numbering 955.

Despite Boeing’s muted presence, pending investigation of the cause of the Air India disaster, Airbus and Embraer made noteworthy announcements for commercial aircraft at the show. Airbus announced 148 firm orders including six previously unpublicized, plus 102 provisional orders, for a total value estimated at $21 billion.

Airbus received orders from AviLease for 77 aircraft, including A350 freighters and A320neos, Riyadh Air ordered 25 A350-1000 aircraft with an option for 25 more, and Taiwan’s STARLUX Airlines placed a firm order of 10 additional A350-1000 aircraft to 20 Airbus aircraft already on order, and Polish airline LOT purchased 20 A220-100 and 20 A220-300 regional jets.

Embraer inked 79 firm orders and 60 options. A 60-aircraft firm order for the E175 jets (with options for 50 more) came from SkyWest Airlines, which operates Delta, American, and United regional brands.

By the show’s close, 601 commercial aircraft transactions were tallied across firm orders, options, letters of intent, and memoranda of understanding – according to aviation intelligence and advisory company IBA. This number surpasses last year’s Farnborough Air Show total of 447, but is far fewer than the 1,338 commitments announced at the 2023 Paris Air Show.

Beyond the announcements

While the aircraft orders get a lot of attention, the Paris Air Show features five large trade exhibit halls, an expansive static aircraft display area, and numerous venues focused on aerospace’s future. SIAE, a subsidiary of the French Aerospace Industries Association (GIFAS) organizing the show, reports there were 2,400 exhibitors from 48 countries, 400 official delegations, 136 start-ups, 155 aircraft in 173 flying displays, 305,200 unique visitors, and 70 hectares (173 acres) of exhibit space. Le Bourget is also home to France’s Museum of Air and Space.

Paris Air Lab showcases future aerospace technologies, including digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI,) cybersecurity, and quantum technologies; Paris Space Hub highlights advancements and innovations in space technology; Start-Me Up offers a launchpad for business start-ups and innovative solutions. Women in Aerospace and Aerospace Careers exhibits are informative for trade attendees as well as the public at large who attend the show later in the week.

A booth visit with DuPont allowed an interview with Whit Brown, aerospace and defense (A&D) business lead; Matt Manelis, application engineer; and Olga Shtyka, R&D engineer. Brown notes there are roughly 1,200 variants of Kapton, the company’s gold-colored foil thermal management system. The ability to customize the polyimide film’s recipe makes it adaptable to future needs.

“The megatrend we’re seeing is the need for reliability in extreme environments – hotter, colder, higher voltages, better insulation – without adding weight,” Brown says. He points to the company’s global tech and application centers’ ability to partner with customers to verify designs and generate small sample quantities within weeks instead of months. New uses for the material include film heaters for wing deicing, and tube and spiral wraps for wire insulation.

Hexagon showcased how it’s helping the aerospace industry solve some of its challenges by automating large-scale assembly, using tactile 3D measurement to boost inspection speed and accuracy, and make measurements across the factory or shop floor.

Aziz Tahiri, Hexagon’s global VP aerospace & industry, demonstrated the Leica Absolute Tracker ATS800 that can scan with 50µm precision large surfaces – such as aircraft fuselages – up to 40m away. Tahiri also discussed the ability to catalog machines in a factory as a service, covering up to 2,000m2 in less than 2 hours, making digital twins with millimeter accuracy, simplifying floor planning, identifying machine location, or tracking facility modifications. Another item shown was the MAESTRO coordinate measurement machine (CMM). Ten years in development, its Autonomous Metrology Suite software allows almost anyone to program a CMM, acquire data across multiple CMMs, and create and share reports.

Featured among the startups, DessiaTechnologies is a French company providing AI-powered solutions to make design processes more reliable and efficient. CEO Jean-Pierre Roux explains AI creates more simulations from data to let engineers make better decisions – and make them much faster.

One example is managing the algorithms for routing wiring harnesses and ducting in an aircraft fuselage – including tube radius and bending parameters – to generate multiple solutions in days rather than months previously needed. The AI can cross-check its solutions against material constraints and integrate with product lifecycle management (PLM) software.

In a case study, Safran Tech and Dessia developed an AI framework to automatically generate and optimize hybrid aircraft propulsion architectures. Using decision-tree algorithms, the system explored more than 2,600 validated electric-hydrogen configurations in less than a day – instead of weeks of trial-and-error design. The AI enforces safety constraints and engineering rules while evaluating each architecture for performance, emissions, and reliability.

Insights

John Schmidt, Accenture’s senior managing director – Aerospace & Defense, Global, shared some of his observations from the show. He confirmed his pre-show assessment of Europe rapidly developing as a key global defense market, adding the compound annual growth rate for defense acquisitions in Europe during the next five years will more than double the U.S. rate (7.9% vs. 3.6%). He says American companies are already partnering with European companies on defense projects and he expects to see more of that.

Another trend Schmidt sees in defense is movement from the “exquisite to the expendable.” Rather than spending on a few highly capable, complex, long lead time, do-everything platforms, countries are looking to obtain quantities of inexpensive systems available on short timelines that can do one thing well – weaponized drones being one example.

Ajay Chavali, Deloitte’s commercial A&D and advanced air mobility market leader, says three topics driving the global economy are “Tariffs, AI, and Taylor Swift.” On the latter, he notes “if you read about the singer’s impact, wherever she’s had a concert it’s about a billion-dollar boost to the local economy and that’s impressive.”

On tariffs, he sees manufacturers responding first by optimizing claw back on the fees, next by sourcing optimally, and then optimizing product design to match the most cost-effective material supply. Changing the bill of materials would likely require costly recertification, however. He notes reshoring manufacturing “can take years.”

AI for data analytics is a well-known use. Generative AI is creative, as in using ChatGPT to write an email. The challenge is it can suggest a new answer every time, which can result in hallucinations. Chavali emphasizes it needs human monitoring of what it suggests. He explains agentic AI will perform actions on your behalf – such as changing a cancelled flight and updating hotel reservations. It, too, requires supervision and strict rules of operation.

About the author: Eric Brothers is editor of GIE Media’s Manufacturing Group publications. He can be reached at EBrothers@gie.net or 216.393.0228.