Paris air show 2009

[B777LR]

Hello all!

I was on a short weekend trip to Paris this weekend.

We left home at 3 AM in the morning. We arrived in Hamburg at about 5:30 AM. Traffic along the Danish part of the highway was horrible, due to the AC/DC concert that had ended in Copenhagen at midnight.
We flew Air France, on an A320, registered F-GJVB, a 19 year old aircraft that had flown with Air Inter since 1991, and Air France since 1997.
After a short 2 hour hop to Paris (we had to hold for 30 minutes over Paris) we touched down. Following a further 15 minute delay due to lack of buses, we entered the terminal. What a mess. We walked up some stairs, and right out into the departures area in the midst of morning rush hour. I have seen airports in Africa that looked better than the mess they call Terminal 2 At least we didn't bring checked in luggage, so we could walk right out.
Me and my dad took the RER to Le Bourget, mum and sister going on to the center of Paris. On leaving the train at the station, we found that we had bought tickets to the wrong station, which is bad as you need a correct ticket to leave the station. Luckily there were thousands of people leaving the station, so the police opened up the gates for free access
We were whisked to the air show by bus, and soon we were inside:

German concept:







Ulan-ude:



United Aircraft Corporation:



More coming

[B777LR]

Israeli stealth UAV helicopter:



French UAV - The Danish AF had these, and couldn't make them work. Apparently works for the French AF



Yet more UAV, this time IAI.





Big IAI UAV



Chinese ATR rip-off, called the MA700



GP7200, for the A380. There was also a GENx and a P&W Geared Turbofan in there



Propeller for the E-2C i think. Nothing compared to the ATR and A400M though



United Aircraft Corp



Super Hornet:



ScanEagle:



Constellation



Mohawk



Mirage III



Pilatus PC-12



PC-6



PC-21



A380! One of 3 i saw that day. The two prototypes at Le Bourget, and a Singapore Airlines A380 departing from Charles De Gaulle!

[B777LR]

E-2C



C-17



Suddenly they decided to drag a bunch of aircraft through the crowd. What horrible planning

[Howard of Effingham]

thanks '787.

looks like you had a very good time there. seems as if everyman and his dog wants makes and sells UAV's these
days. the german concept a/c at the start of the photos is bizarrely cool.

btw, the mohawk is actually an OV-10 bronco.

[PR19_Kit]

btw, the mohawk is actually an OV-10 bronco.

Yes, but what was it doing there? They stopped making them eons ago! Or are NA (or whetever they're called these days....) really going to re-start production? If so who's buying them?

[B777LR]

btw, the mohawk is actually an OV-10 bronco.

Yes, but what was it doing there? They stopped making them eons ago! Or are NA (or whetever they're called these days....) really going to re-start production? If so who's buying them?

Tis not just a sales show, veteran aircraft came as well thus the A300, Connie, F-15E, Fokker DR.1, Mirage III, Mustang, DC-3 and C-130 non J...

Return trip from Paris was on Air France, A320 F-GKXI, a 2003 build. CDG T2 was horrible, no shops. Don't ever go there. Instead fly Lufthansa to Terminal 1, much better

Funny exhaust on a Finnair A321



Rare 1988 A320-100. Note the lack of winglets



Lots and lots of these:



Even more of these:



2 A330, and a brand new B777-300ER for Austral!



On Jetphotos.net there is a photo taken from the very same A320, of the very same 767, at the very same location. Nice coincidence!



Lufthansa!



The Japanese 747-400 that goes over my house every day!



Clean wing. The aircraft looked new. It must have been painted recently.





Rainy Hamburg



Airport one:





Fokker 100



Air Berlin Crash-8 Q400



Luxair Embraer



Star Alliance Lufthansa



Lufthansa 737











From the highway i took this photo of a Lufthansa 737

[Hawkeye]

Its important to point out that the Paris Airshow is actually a business expo where the manufacturers are showcasing their products to potential customers. This isn't just an airshow to entertain the public.

Some years ago while I was in the US Air Force stationed at Whiteman AFB MO (now home of the B-2) I was assigned on two separate occasions to assist McDonnell Douglas with their preparations for the Paris Air Show. Whiteman was known as "Edwards East" because of the long wide runway and the vast amount of taxi way space (being a former B-52 base) with sparsely populated area surrounding it, was a perfect place to put aircraft through their paces.

The aerial demonstrations though exciting are also a competition of sorts. The aircraft are allocated a specific window of time to perform, the pilot/aircraft that uses that window the most effectively wins. It is also important that the aircraft be in tip top shape as well as carrying the exact amount of fuel required to give the best performance during the allocated window.

The preparation trails consisted of finding the exact fuel load required to perform the planned aerobatic routine within the allotted time. They'd calculate the necessary fuel load based on air temp, altitude, air pressure and fuel burn rate at 100% throttle with burner (reheat). This gives the weight of fuel required for the sortie. It was a trial and error procedure more than a scientific calculation. Several attempts were made to get the routine down, within the time frame and have enough fuel. More than once did the jets flame out from lack of fuel only to land where ever the pilot could land...runway or taxiways.  Once things came into sync it was done several times to ensure the formulation, pilot and plane were ready.

The goal was reached when the routine could be flown within the prescribed time and land with nothing but vapors left in the tanks...if you could taxi back to the ramp you had too much fuel on board.

I did this with the F-15, F-18 and AV-8B. The AV-8B was a little different, it was not allowed to run out of fuel while airborne. They started with a near full load and trimmed it back until there was a +5% safety margin upon completion. Harriers don't glide well from a hover mode! My job during this was to watch and enjoy the show...and to drive/move equipment as needed. It was a great time! If I only had the smarts to have a camera with me!  But as memory serves we had to sign forms that prohibited us from disclosing the information about the event by the company.

[B777LR]

Interesting. I suppose thats normal practice for demonstration teams that don't perform regularly.


A slight note on the A320 vs. 737, now that i have flown both types.
The old A320 was far more noisy than a 1989 737-300. The new A320 was just as quiet as a 737NG. Both A320 make funny noises on the ground, and when the gear retracts. Seating on the A320 is much worse than in any 737. Better space under the seat in front of you though. On the A320 the cabin interior looks bad (aesthetically), and the windows are far too low. The supposed wider fuselage is not noticeable, because the walls narrow in far more/the floor is higher in the cabin, and thus you would feel that it is more cramped than in the 737. Windows are located at head height on the 737. Seating height was horrible on the old A320, no headrest. I could see every head in the cabin in front of me. It was slighly better on the new one. All in all i would go for a 737 any day.

[lancer]

I was waiting around in Aer Lingus' executive departure lounge at Dublin waiting to come back from a day trip to our Irish Office and I got chatting to a pilot about various things aeronautical, made a refreshing difference from all the stuffed shirt business types in the lounge and I said something about how graceful the airliners were and I will never froget his reply. He just looked straight at me, snorted and said' Theose damm things are just airborne busses and we're just over paid bus drivers - nothing more!'
To mte, it's interesting the different points of view people have of airliners. To my dad, a ramp rat with Aer Lingus for 20 odd years before a cargo door broke and buggered his neck and back, they were rated n how easy to load and unload they were, to the pilot's they're busses and to the people who sit in the back and rave about how good they are, know all the facts, figures and performance specs but NEVER fly them, they are the best thing since sliced bread, especially if you're a young 'wet-behind-the-ears' sprog whith a long learning curve ahead of you!
Oh, best 'bus' I ever travelled in was an AEr Lingus A319 - bloody thing was so quick off them mark, I thought it might have had a reheat put on it for a laugh!!

[GTX]

He just looked straight at me, snorted and said' Theose damm things are just airborne busses and we're just over paid bus drivers - nothing more!'

Couldn't agree more!

Regards,

Greg

[GTX]

Some of my pics from Paris - these were only taken with a phone camera and were quite rushed (I only had a little over an hour between meetings, so did a quick wander):







More to follow...

Regards,

Greg

[GTX]

More coming...

[GTX]

Few more yet (I wandered very quickly)...

[GTX]

I do like a Cat...

[GTX]

Not as impressive as the real versions I saw a week later but still:





and finally, one for the Australian Taxpayer:  The view from the Australian Embassy in Paris:



Regards,

Greg