1926 exhibitors from 41 countries, 238 aircraft, 480.000
visitors in 7 days,among them 223.000 professionals and
257.000 spectators...
These
numbers already make clear that this year's Paris Air Show
has been a massive success. Pushed, of course, by the presence
of the Airbus A380 at its first public appearance, the show
attracted loads of visitors. Everybody wanted to see the
"A trois cent quatre-vingt", and they were not
disappointed as it flew daily.
This
year exhibitors from the USA were also present after their
absence due to frictions between France and the US in 2003.
Boeing presented their new B777-200LR and the KC-767A tanker
in full colours, which will be delivered to the Italian
Air Force. However, their flight display participation was
sparse. Only the F/A-18F Super Hornet flew in the flight
display. Regarding this fact I am really looking back when
there was still a B717 in the flight display... Also the
777 did not fly, but even a lot more interesting was the
waterbombing demonstration of a DC-10! The former Dreamliner,
which is now called 787, was also already present at every
corner of the Salon. We might see it live on stage in two
years?!
Besides
the US the Russian participation was remarkable as once
again a Sukhoi Su-30SKM was present at Le Bourget. THe other
competitors for the best military jet flight display were
the usual ones: Rafale, Eurofighter and Mirage 2000, F-16.
New was a Torando IDS MLU, presented by Alenia. The future
in from of a lot of VCAVs and UAVs could also be admired.
Let's hope there will still be some real jets in the future
for an exciting flight display!
Further
premieres at Le Bourget were: the HJT-36 Sitara jet trainer
and the Dhruv and Cheetal helicopters, the Aermacchi M346,
the Embraer 195 (which flew displays together with the 175)
and the Dassault Falcon 7X.
But, unfortunately, with all these 'first shows', came also
the farewell to the Mirage IV, which flew on Monday for
President Chiraques. After the retiring of Concorde two
years ago this was another sad end for a French legend.
Let's see what highs and lows will await us in two years
for the 47th edition of the 'Salon du Bourget' as this edition
was a big and firm step to establish itself as Europe's
premier aeronautical fair!
