Well, I finally have a few minutes in between measurements and actually feel like writing. This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Paris and attend the Paris Air Show. Let me start by saying, I'm an aviation nut. I've grown up with it, started taking lessons in high school, and got my pilots license as a freshman in college. Let me also preface the following by saying I'm a little bit of an air show snob, as I have seen literally close to 100 shows over the years. This was my first time attending an air show out of the country, and I have always heard how great the Paris Air Show and the Farnborough Air Shows were. The Farnborough and Paris shows occur on alternating years, and are the industry trade shows for the commercial and defense aviation industries. Basically, that means that there are lots of military jets and commercial airplanes on display and in the airshow, which was the reason I have always wanted to attend. Most air shows in the US are composed of many civilian acts (Extra 300, Waco, P-51, Wingwalkers, etc) which are cool in their own right, but often don't include many military demos that burn more than the required amount of kerosene. So, I got up at 4:00am on friday and caught the first tram (which was of course 6 minutes late, causing me to get a little worried as I had a tight connection at the station) to the Grenoble train station. The 3 hour train ride to paris was uneventful, and I slept a little more. Once there, I bought a delicious croissant (still warm) and an espresso (American coffee doesn't really exist) and caught the RER (regional train) to Le Bourget and the Le Bourget Airport, which is a northern suburb of Paris where the show is held. I had figured out ahead of time what trains I need to take to get there (and to my hotel) but didn't quite understand the ticketing system. As I later learned, tickets within paris are 1.40 euros, and more if you go further out. But, I bought a 1.40 euro ticket and got on the train to Le Bourget (the ticket should have cost more, but I did't know at the time. Fortunatly, I have never seen anyone check for tickets on any tram or metro rail system, although I hear it happens from time to time). I arrived at the Le Bourget stop, and took the Air Show shuttle the couple kilometers to the show. I walked this leg the three remaining times, as they were running the shuttles in series, and should have been running them in a parallel fasion to eliminate the 30 minute wait (not to mention when I tried to take the shuttle back on the first day, traffic was so bad that it took us an hour to move 6 blocks at which point I got off the bus and walked). I arrived at the show about 9:30am, presented my student ID and got in free. The weather wasn't great on friday, but held until lunch time. So, I spent the first couple hours walking around the static displays. Unfortunately, they had all the airplanes fenced off and I couldn't get very close them, something I'm used to being able to do from my many visits to the EAA Fly in in Oshkosh, WS (still the best aviation event in my opinion), but there were some cool planes such as the Airbus A380, Boeing 777, Dassault Rafael, Eurofighter Typhoon, Eurocopter, Piaggio Avantio P180 (one of my all time favorite airplanes), and a bunch of other stuff. After checking out the static displays, I bought a sandwich and headed into the exhibit buildings. Again, I'm used to the exhibit buildings at Oshkosh, where the booths are somewhat small and "no frills". Not so much here, and this is how you could definitely tell it was a trade show (read "about money"). The boothes were giant and extravagent, and many had privite rooms for business. In fact, most of the static displays had their own meeting rooms (that looked more like box seats at a sporting event) as well. As I happened to be walking around during lunch time, it was funny to see exhibitors drinking wine and champagne with their crackers, cheese, etc. Not a bad lunch, if you ask me. I didn't talk to any of the exhibitors, as there wasn't much for the general aviation finatic, but I did enjoy standing in the MiG and Sukoi booths, and seeing all the vendors who manufacture stuff for the defense and airline industries. Unfortunaly, it was now pouring, and I had to wait around for a while before going back outside. The rain let up just before 2pm when the flying program started. The ceilings were low, and it rained on and off (I spend much of the show under an overhang) so they had to modify the program, but it was still fun to see the military demos, which included A Mirage, Rafael, Eurocopter, Eurofighter, F-16, Su-35, the A380, and some other things. One of the best demos was of an Italian transport, the C-27J (of which the US military has purchased 70). This thing was really impressive; 8000 HP, it climbed and performed like a fighter. They even flewy a pass on knife edge! The SU-35 was also cool to see with its thrust vectoring capability. The show lasted until 4:30, and then I headed to the train station and caught the RER to my hotel, which was only 100 yards off the RER line, a few stops down. I lucked out with the hotel. Good location and a very nice room at a good price. I had dinner int he hotel restaurant and then went to bed. Saturday, I got up, caught the train back to Le Bourget, bought a couple croissants at one of the bakeries on the way to the show, and headed in. As I had already seen the static displays and the exhibit buildings, I decided to bay the 4 euros for a museum ticket. The museum was alright, but not spectacular. They have quite a nice display of pre WWI and WWI aircraft, and many of the plackards are written in English as well as French and German. One of my favorites read "During the war, a new type of combatant appeared: the aviator. For a lot of military chiefs, he inspired only limited confidence because, at least apparently, his induvidualism made him abhor discipline." After the museum, I bought a "hot dog" (which was really a foot long dog on baguette covered with some sort of real cheese, in comparison to the crappy liquid cheese we have in the states) and found a place on the two square meters of grass that existed for all 10,000 spectators (it was a terrible venue for an airshow) to sit, eat, and wait for the show. The weather was a little better on saturday, and the ceilings allowed for the normal show. It was basically the same program as friday, with the addition of an F-18 E and a few other things. I really appreicated the way the fighter pilots demoed the aircraft. Mostly, if the airplane was equipped with an after burner, it was used for the entire program. Shut it off? No way! We have extra fuel to burn. I love the smell of jet fuel! And seeing flame shoot out of anything is always cool. The Airbus A380 was also impressive, and upon takeoff, the pilot pulled back like he was in a fighter. It actually reminded me of watching a C-130 with JATO's. Very impressive. After the show (or most of the show, as I didn't care to see the Extra 300 performance, something I have seen dozens of times) I bought some groceries for dinner and headed back to my hotel where I proceed to eat, and and watch BBC world news until I went to sleep. I would have gone out and walked around, but I my hip was pretty sore from a little spill I had taken on my bike while riding to work in the rain on wednesday, and I opted to stay in. Thus ended my adventure at the Paris Air Show.
Overall Impressions:
Nice military demos, with lots of kerosene and afterburner
Definitely a trade show
Not a great venue for the public
Worth going once, but
Oshkosh is still FAR better.
I've posted picks on fotki and some videos on Facebook and YouTube.
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnAdhasftKI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx4reVp-Zjkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgQoizmgzaUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EG6PcLw7WMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tzP-qX1ZMQ
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