Transpo '72 - Background

Background

Transpo was the idea of L. Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Rivers had visited the Paris Air Show on occasion; at the time, there were a "ring" of three major air shows in Europe that took turns hosting, Farnborough, Paris and Hanover. Visitors from around the would could come to the show where sales teams from the aviation firms were ready to sign deals for their latest products. Rivers lamented the fact that there was no similar industry-based show in the U.S. Rivers started planning a U.S. version of the air/trade show, and selected Washington as a natural location due to the density of military contacts and the presence of the recently expanded Dulles Airport. Rivers went to Congress with a request for $750,000 in funding.

However, this was during an era of rapid shifts within the aviation industry. The winding-down of major purchases to feed the Vietnam War and Project Apollo was forcing the major aerospace firms to seek ways to diversify, and the government was actively funding a number of mass transit projects in partnership with them. Rivers changed the focus to be a show about any form of transit, not just aircraft, and the size and cost started to increase. He won an initial appropriation of $3 million for the show, but had to return to Congress for another $2 million to keep it on track as its scale rapidly increased. Critics, notably William Proxmire, attacked the event and claimed that the actual costs would be closer to $10 million when industry input was considered.

By the time the show was ready it had expanded greatly, including not only displays but industry meetings, open seminars and hosts of presentations large and small. The official program was 80 pages. Pre-show estimates of visitors ranged about the 1 million mark or larger. Final attendance was put at 1.25 million.