Paris Air Show – Video of the flying demonstrations

by Kent Wien on

The Paris Air Show restricts access to press and industry professionals from Monday through Thursday, which would seem to make it the ideal time to visit the show, assuming you could get your hands on a pass.

Gadling editor Grant Martin and I managed to attend, hoping to see some of the latest innovations for future travelers. We caught the new Boeing 787 electronic window shade on video and watched the debut flight display of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner.

Exhausted from the traveling that day, we decided to enjoy the perfect weather to catch the flying display on Wednesday. I even came back on Sunday to compare the differences in the show between the industry days and the general public weekend show.

Even though there are huge crowds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the overall mood is much more friendly, with a greater sense of excitement present. Just take a look at these two pictures of the show to see if you can sense the difference:

Shoot me if I ever attend an airshow in a suit:

There were just a few smiles during the week, but the crowd really seemed to be enjoying themselves over the weekend. No doubt the economy has been in the back of everyone’s mind in the industry, while the general public attended the show simply to be entertained.

And entertained they were. Video after the jump.

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The one thing that the Paris Air Show and Farnborough in England have over the typical stateside airshow are the civil aircraft flying displays; something I was eager to see for my first time visiting the Paris Air Show.

The flying display began with an impressive BD-5 reincarnation called the LH-10 Ellipse that manages to fly at 200 knots (230 m.p.h.) while sipping just 5 gallons an hour. That’s about 40 miles per gallon.

The Eurocopter Tiger helicopter proved once again that it’s capable of an impressive array of aerobatic maneuvers, including a loop, a roll, split-S and this stunt that I’ve never seen before:

After Airbus flew the A300, A320, A340 and the A380, it was time for the aerobatic solo performances. An F-16, Mirage III, Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon flew, and on the weekend we saw the graceful French aerobatic team La Patrouille de France take over the show.

The Sunday show ended with a few fly-bys of a Lockheed Constellation from Breitling, a B-17, a PBY and the first Dassault aircraft, an MD 315 Flamant.

Disappointingly, Boeing had a very limited presence at the show, with just a ‘chalet’ available by appointment only. Grant and I managed to walk through the building that was located right on the flight line next to other industry heavy weights, and take in the view from upstairs, but it was set up for meetings and as a perk for important customers.

Maybe the 787 will make its public debut at Farnborough next year. If so, Gadling will hopefully be there.

Check out the rest of Gadling’s Paris Air Show coverage.

Paris Air Show 2009: A sense of scale

by Grant Martin on

Covering the Paris Air Show is like trying to cover a football field with a napkin. There is so much space, depth and gravity to each display that you could spend a week going through each exhibit hall and still not get the full picture.

The above photo is a great example. This landing gear will be part of the new Airbus A350 aircraft, a model that still hasn’t been fully developed, but that’s generating a lot of buzz.

Standing right next to the gear you get a sense of the size of that aircraft. Each of the wheels comes up to your chest, which means the entire system is over 15 feet tall. And this is one corner of one display, in one corner of hall 3. It adds up quickly.

Engines have the same effect, with Pratt and Whitney, United Technologies and GE all bringing out the big guns for jaw dropping passers by. Check out one of the GE GENex engines that’ll be used on the Boeing 787 (with composite fan blades!) on display after the jump.

Photo of the Day (6/18/09)

by Kent Wien on

Gadling’s photo of the day today was taken by Sean Roskey, who managed to capture this shot of Gadling’s editor, Grant Martin enjoying a tour of the 767 cockpit given by yours truly before heading off to the Paris Air Show.

Given Grant’s near destruction of Virgin Australia’s 777 simulator, we made sure he didn’t touch anything.

Are you a Flickr user who’d like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling’s Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!

Paris Air Show 2009: A walk around the world’s largest air show

by Grant Martin on

Stepping off the shuttle bus from RER Bourget into the air show grounds, you begin to digest the magnitude of this event. From a plan of the show, one can see that aircraft displays and flights take place at one corner of the airport. The other two thirds of the show can be seen inside of several massive exhibit halls, where a curious visitor can spend an entire week walking up, down and through the displays. Set your bag down, gaze down an aisle and marvel as booths extend beyond your field of vision.

These aren’t low budget, Lincoln Log booths either. As the show is in France, many companies have cafés integrated into their exhibits, where passers by can grab an espresso, look over the wares and discuss business in a comfortable, European setting.

A million smaller displays feature tiny facets from suppliers, facilitators and buyers around the planet, with a few eager representatives waiting to give you their pitch. On the other end of the spectrum, displays from GE, United Technologies and Pratt and Whitney have full engines on site, where you can step into the cowling, poke the fan blades and get your photo taken inside of the massive, circular maze.

Out on the tarmac you can wander around the myriad displays, from the massive A380 to the drone helicopters to the missile defense systems, jostling around military brass, men in power suits and women in high heels and sun glasses.

And as with all air shows, there is a flight component. A tightly regimented flight schedule is published each day, detailing a few hours of quick, varied demonstrations. New aircraft are obviously highlighted (this year Sukhoi‘s Superjet 100 was a treat,) but with the centennial this year, several older aircraft were mixed in with the show. We’ll tell you more about that later.

We’ll be posting pictures and videos from the air show for the next week or so (including a sweet demonstration of the 787 window technology.) Come back and visit often.

Photo of the Day (6.16.09)

by Grant Martin on

Today’s Photo of the Day is relevant for several reasons. The shot of the tarmac on the way to Paris was taken by Kent Wien, our resident pilot who is actually currently on layover in the middle of a BOS-CDG-BOS turn.

This week is also the week of the 45th Paris Air Show, the massive biannual event that brings thousands of suppliers, manufacturers and press to Le Bourget for updates on all of the new technology. It’s the biggest air show in the world, and both Kent and Grant will running around collecting data for Gadling. Stay tuned later this week for updates from the show.

Oh, and if you’ve got any cool photos that you’d like to share with the world, add them to the Gadling Pool on Flickr and it might be chosen as our Photo of the Day. Make sure you save them under Creative Commons though, otherwise we can’t use them!