Power, Performance, Pride: My Day at the Farnborough Airshow

Jim Speich: My name is Jim Speich. I work at Pratt & Whitney. I'm here at the 2016 Farnborough Airshow. I'm a senior marketing manager, just in charge of new engine business.

Jim Speich: The reason this is a special air show to us here at Pratt & Whitney - and to myself - is because we have a lot of product here with the Geared Turbofan engine on it. We have the Embraer [E190-E2], we have the [Bombardier] C Series.

Jim Speich: Of course the F-35 is not a Geared Turbofan, but nevertheless it is a Pratt & Whitney.

Jim Speich: It's just great to see all of the product here with our engine and people recognizing that Pratt & Whitney is back.

Jim Speich: I've been at Pratt & Whitney for 40 years, selling engines. I just want to be part of that.

Jim Speich: Usually we travel throughout the world to see the airline customers, but here we can get them right in the building and explain the product. And we can really get a chance to talk with them, have nice conversations with them and tell them the benefits of our engine.

Jim Speich: I think it's just important to have someone here that's really familiar with jet engines that we produce. I'm not saying that I'm the most knowledgeable person in the world about them, but I know quite a bit about Geared Turbofans and about jet engines.

Jim Speich: It starts very early in the morning. We're here about 7 o'clock in the morning and we do catch a little breakfast. I'll admit that. From there, we go into team meetings so that we know what's going to happen throughout the day. We review the day from beginning to end, what customers we're going to see, what meetings we have. And, of course, we come out here to this beautiful pavilion that we've made here and we go through that and make sure everything works, everything is up and running, so we're all set to see our first customers when they come in in the morning.

Jim Speich: And I think one of the most important things for us is that we get to see all of our customers under one roof. We speak to customers before they buy, we speak to customers who've bought the Geared Turbofan, that are just anxious to see the engine as it is, inside a nice, clean beautiful building.

Jim Speich: It's just a great feeling to be able to tell the customers about what you make. How it runs. How it benefits in saving fuel, reduced noise, reduced emissions, lower weight, less parts. I mean, this is really a fantastic engine for Pratt & Whitney. It's going to be with us for some time, so I'm very proud to be part of it.