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Paris Air Show Report
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The Paris Air Show has often been called the Olympics of the air. And indeed it ought to be. It is by far the biggest of the international air shows (though Farnborough is rapidly closing the gap) and due to France’s relatively independent political stance, it tends to attract a large contingent of countries that find it politically unacceptable to attend Farnborough or Hanover.
This year was no exception with some 650 companies representing 141 countries before a trade audience of more than 120,000 with an additional one million non-trade visitors cramming in for the public days. Some 360 chalets, many of them double storeyed and 68,000 square metres of indoor displays helped sell what to the international aerospace community is the greatest show on earth.
This year though the greatest show tended to have the bubble of yesterday’s champagne. Rain squalls, cold winds and the constant presence of the French autocracy at its nonsensical worst all served to dampen the spirits of even the most enthusiastic aviation observer. To top this off little really occurred in the news department to write home about. No big mega-orders, no aircraft launches of any real note, more of a continuation of the projects and aspirations so successfully launched at last year’s Farnborough. Additionally, the Americans again brought almost no hardware to the show except for a quick visit from one of SAC’s B-1Bs and GD’s impressive F-16C.
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