General Aviation News - 21 June 2018

18 General Aviation News — 800.426.8538 June 21, 2018

By TED LUEBBERS

A friend of mine in Experimental Avia-
tion Association Chapter 534 who knew
that my wife Joan and I would be spend-
ing some time in Paris, France, in May of
this year suggested we visit the French
Air and Space Museum, called Musee de
L’air et de L’espace.
He said “you will see things there that
cannot be seen anywhere else.” He was
right.
The museum is located at Le Bourget
Airport about 25 miles outside of Paris in
the town of Le Bourget. This is the airport
where Charles Lindbergh landed after his
epic non-stop flight across the Atlantic
Ocean.
We were staying in a hotel near the
Eiffel Tower and were initially concerned
about how we would get there, consider-
ing we had never been to France before
and didn’t know our way around very
well.
Fortunately, we had purchased a five-
day Tourist Pass before we arrived in Par-
is, which included the Metro, train, bus,
and boat tickets, so all we had to do was
insert the Metro pass in the gate or flash
the other passes as we entered.
It was surprisingly easy to get there
and only took us about an hour. We took
the subway, called the Metro, to Guard
de Nord, the train station, to the town of
Le Bourget. At the train depot we got in-
structions to walk about three blocks to
the center of town and get on Bus 152
at the bus stop. After several stops over
a three-mile local bus route we arrived at
the museum.
This museum is reputed to be the oldest
aircraft museum in the world as it opened
in 1919. It covers 1.6 million square feet
of land and hangars.
It has a large collection of French vin-
tage aircraft, World War I and World War
II planes, two Concord Supersonic air-
craft side by side, modern French military

jet planes, as well as examples of contem-

porary commercial aircraft and rockets.

According to museum officials, the mu-

seum has a collection of more than 400

aircraft, with 150 on display, ranging from

the very first airplanes to the Breguet 19

“Point d’Interrogation,” the Spitfire, and

the Concorde.

A person could easily spend a day there

and see most of what the museum has to

offer. There is a restaurant on the prem-

ises when you want to take a lunch break.

We recommend it to any aviation buffs

who might be spending time in Paris.

MuseeAireSpace.fr/en

A trip to the French Air Museum

The Tourist Museum Pass allows the holder to tour three of the larger aircraft such as this Air France 747.

Photo by Ted Luebbers

Photo by Ted Luebbers

Photo by Ted Luebbers

Photo by Ted Luebbers

A 1917 Morane-Saulier A1 on display at the French Air and Space Museum.

There are two Concord Supersonic jets parked side by side. One was a proto-

type used for developing the plane for commercial use loaded with research

instrumentation in its fuselage. The other one was set up for standard pas-

senger service.

An English deHavilland DH89 commercial transport aircraft from the mid
1930s is on display at the museum.