Paris Air Show

I've just gotten back from Le Bourget airport, in Paris. I wasen't flying out of the country,or in for that matter, I was going to the air show! Being one of the largest in the world, Airbus has used this event to fly it's A380 for the first time in front of a large public. I have seen it fly in Toulouse and over my house already, but this was the official unveiling. I've got quite a few pics, so sorry for all you 56k users out there :-)

Please note, fighter jets are loud, the A380 was among the quietest planes at the show, amazingly enough. I was very, very surprised about that.

Wow, that thing is a monster!

I know, I was amazed when I saw it take off. And just sitting there it is huge! Airbus really stole the show today. As soon as the A380 laned, everybody actually left. I think that the French are proud to have had such an innovation in technology in the Aircraft industry. I think that this is as big (not as in size, but as in importance and popularity) as the Concorde was, but with both less resistance and much more practical.

that thing is a beast. Must have been fun to see it.

by the way mrps2 we got our hack

F-16, F-18, hmmm sounds like a US show minus the big ass jet

Well, it's actually just because I only got good pics of those planes There were quite a few Russian fighters flying as well. The Dassaut Falcon 7X flew as well (it's a new plane w/Prat & Whitney engines that all the pilots like because it feels like a fighter :-) A lot of the show was oriented towards corporate buyers as well. There were many booths that showed off the latest aircraft parts. Rolls-Royce, Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney were all displaying their latest designs there. Quite a bit of Titanium alloy parts as well. Guess that that's what's in these days... lol The show really didn't feel american at all. It was all about Airbus. At all these booths, all the major companies showed what parts they have on the A380 and so on. While the Americans attracted attention of all the little kids with pins and cowboy outfits, and of the big kids with procatively dressed flight attendants between F16s and Apache helicopters, they were not really a huge presence there. There are actually a fair amount of vintage planes there as well. As I have already mentioned, this is more a corporate event than a public event, so there were a myriad of private jets as well. I didn't take pics of those because they are a little more boring than the fighters :-)

No show I've ever gone to had private jets, and passenger liners.... Who the heck cares about those. I wanna see the F18s, F117s, F16s, F15s, F.... etc Fighter Jets... and I just LOVE the B1 Bomber... Big jet, but I'd be quite THRILLED to be the pilot of THAT baby.

As for the Air Bus and Jumbo Jets..... That's when I'd hit the snack bar.. Until the REAL show starts

Apache = pants full of ::gets cut off by better judgement::