The Paris Air
Show – 2015
The
Paris Air Show is held every other year at the Le Bourget airfield just outside
Paris proper. It’s not your typical US
type airshow in that it’s mostly set up as a commercial sales event for
airframe manufacturers and aircraft parts and service providers. The show itself lasts a week but the public
is only invited for the last three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). I got to attend all three days while my wife
went shopping. In retrospect, probably
not the smartest arrangement on my part…. nevertheless.
I
boarded the Paris Metro and took the train headed to Charles de Gaulle
airport. Le Bourget is seven stops short
of the international airport and within fare zone 3 so it saves some subway
fare. At the Le Bourget train stop,
there were free shuttle buses to the airshow.
Unfortunately the rail station and the airshow are on opposite sides of
the town so the buses had to wind their way thru the middle of town on the way
to the show. I saw what looked like some
people walking in the right direction but it’s WAY too far to walk (maybe they
weren’t walking to the airshow).
Upon
arriving at the entrance, my first impression is that the French love
airshows. The crowd was huge. Plus the show is NOT FREE. You had to buy a ticket for each day. The ticket cost 14 Euro/day.
There is one (small) grandstand (for an
additional fee) to sit and watch the flying demonstrations but that was sold
out for all three days when I arrived – not that you needed a grandstand seat.
The
airshow grounds are divided into what I saw were 5 distinct areas:
There are a series of very large
buildings that house commercial displays of aircraft equipment and
services. You could spend days walking
up and down the aisles looking at automated machine tools working, various types
of aircraft and spacecraft services, military and civilian aircraft for sale,
etc.
There’s the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum that contains historical aircraft and spacecraft. A very extensive and interesting collection. Worth a trip in and of itself.
There are the outside aircraft
displays themselves (more about this later).
There are the
manufacturers’ sales chalets where the earlier in the week business was
conducted.
There’s the flying
demonstrations themselves.
As
I mentioned, the airshow had packed attendance. There were so many people that it was
difficult in getting around the grounds – and the grounds themselves were big. At
your typical US airshow there are aircraft parked in the apron areas for
display and you can wander around freely between, under and around the ground
displays. Not so at the Paris show. The display aircraft were located behind
security tape or barriers and the only opportunity to observe was from afar. I thought this aspect was very disappointing.
The
flying demonstrations were a mixed bag.
Boeing brought a newly minted 787 which did some spectacular vertical
takeoff and climbs - showing off for customers during the week. The only thing it did on Friday was to
leave. Just a plain jane takeoff and
departure. Airbus brought their A350 and
A380 aircraft that did flying demonstrations for the general public. The best flying was performed by the various
military aircraft which thrilled the crowds with plenty of vertical flying,
tight turning and afterburner flybys.
Overall,
it was a great show in that the commercial displays let you see some of the
behind the scenes aircraft support functions that many just take for
granted. While the flying demonstrations
were entertaining and well executed, I thought they were a little sparse. One cute display was the mini-drones set to music:
