Jetrader - September/October 2013 - 21

Jets from the French Air Force precision flying
team La Patrouille de France perform for the crowd.

The Breitling airplane wing walker provided a spectacular show for the audience.

top-notch lessors admitted they feel more
comfortable coming to the friendly ISTAT
chalet than being at the mercy of the pit
bulls guarding most of the OEM chalets. It
seems most of these guards have the idea
that if you want to get in, you’re probably
a freeloader or a potential threat. How
different from the warm welcome in the
ISTAT Chalet!
I don’t know how Pietrzak and his team
did it, but the ISTAT Chalet was one of
the best spots in the airport to see the
various demo ﬂights. The chalet terrace
was ﬁlled to capacity around show time.
The fact that the ISTAT Chalet was right
next to the area reserved for ofﬁcial press
photographers underlined its perfect location. To stay with Le Bourget traditions,
getting in and out of the show by car was
a nightmare due to chaotic trafﬁc and some
of the parking lots turning into swamps by
the heavy rain. Without a four-wheel drive,
leaving the show on Wednesday afternoon
was virtually impossible.
As none of the public transport workers
were on strike, the metro probably was the
best choice this year to commute between
Paris and Le Bourget. Shuttle buses to and
from the RER subway station reportedly did
function well this year.
Frequent rain showers combined with
occasionally very high temperatures were
a challenge, especially as the rather silly
tradition of wearing business suits to air
shows is apparently ineradicable.

The Best of the Metal
How about the air show itself this
year? Let’s start with the metal on the
ground and in the air. There was a lot of

speculation about the new Airbus A350XWB.
Having made its ﬁrst ﬂight the week before
Le Bourget, most show-goers hoped the
plane would do a ﬂy-by during the show,
which eventually happened on Friday.
Around 1:30 p.m. the Paris Air Show organizers allocated a slot for the new aircraft,
and with the authorization of the French
DGAC civil aviation authority, the plane
made its air show debut. Unfortunately
most of the ISTAT members—including
myself—attended the air show only during
the ﬁrst half of the week, so no A350 in
our spotter’s list yet. In addition to the
A350XWB, Airbus contributed to the festivities with two A380s and the military
A400M. One of the two A380s sported the
livery of British Airways, and it must be
said it looked pretty good on the giant.
Not to be outdone, Boeing ﬂew two
787 Dreamliners to Paris—one in the Qatar
livery, already known from the Farnborough
International Airshow last year, and one in
bright and colorful Air India colors (oddly
enough no Kingﬁsher planes at Le Bourget
this year). At least during the earlier part
of the week, no other commercial transport
aircraft participated in the ﬂying display.
To compensate, there were enough military
aircraft putting on oftentimes stunning
performances. After years of absence, the
Russian aircraft were the crowd’s favorite.
The Kamov KA-52 “Alligator,” a combat
helicopter featuring co-axial rotor-blades
turned heads whenever it took off. Even
more spectacular was the Sukhoi Su-35S,
a super-maneuverable Russian multirole
ﬁghter, featuring multi-axis thrust-vectoring. This “Flanker-E” code-named aircraft
seemed to defy all laws of gravity. Airbus’

Superjet awaits the hand-over to Interjet.

Small and large, all types of aircraft were present in Paris.

After the rain; A380 waiting for the sun to return.
Jetrader • September/October 2013 21
Jetrader - September/October 2013

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