A quick walk through the "Musée de l'air et de l'espace" at Le Bourget (Paris), France

On January 2nd, 2014 I drove from my home to Paris (about 475km each way) for a day trip to visit the French national Air and Space museum at Le Bourget Airport in Paris. After spending the day there (see www.flickr.com/photos/clemensv..., I had a bit of time left before the museum closed and I had my video camera on me as well, so I though I'd make you a little movie.

[@jetaddicted]

The 747 is the example in which I flew my first pro flight, in 1997, the VJ;
The Mercure: only 11 were built;
The DC-8 is a SARIGUE NG, a French electronic warfare aircraft, only two built, promptly retired due to its huge operating cost;
The Rafale proto: actually one meter longer than the operational version, first flew with US engines because the M-88 wasn’t ready yet;
The Transall: this example flew combat operations in Kolwezi, RDC;
In the Concorde hall, the Mirage IV is equipped with JATO pods, you can see them at the back;
The fighter hall: on the ground you’ll notice that a French roundel is painted;
The Mirage 2000 is a prototype and actually isn’t a predecessor of the 4000 but was developped as a cheaper version of the 4000;
The SNCAC Mistral is of course a license built de Havilland Vampire;
The Triton was indeed the first French jet to fly and its pilots said of it that it flew quite well and that they enjoyed doing high speed low passes with it at the end of their test flights;
The Leducs: the 010 had to be launched from a flying platform while the heavier one could take off on its own, thanks to a coaxial turbojet-statoreactor, not unlike that of an SR-71;
The Mirage G.8 was Dassault’s swept wing proto, deemed too expensive it wasn’t ordered;
Right before it you can see a strange pylon like thing: it’s the “ATAR volant” or flying ATAR, basically a jet engine with a seat on top;
The “Mirage III five” is in fact a III V (for vertical), an ADAC/V bird, supersonic but with an incredibly short range due to the added weight of no less than eight engines that would only be used for vertical transition;
The “big helicopter” is a Super Frelon, designed with the help of Sikorski;
The WWII hall:
The FW-190 is in fact a French built example, dubbed NC-900, they flew horribly since the French workers sabotaged them as they were originally intended for the Luftwaffe;
The “French fighter” is one of only three remaining examples of the Dewoitine 520, the best French bird the armée de l’air could oppose to the Luftwaffe in 1940, on par with the first versions of the me-109, but it arrived in too small numbers and too late.
There was a flying example that sadly crashed in 1983.
Too bad you couldn’t film the WWI section as there is one of the SPADS flown by our most beloved ace of the period: Guynemer (not the best though, that title belongs to Fonck, but he was put in the shadow somewhat, for his dubious activities during the German occupation in the 40’s), on his bird, “le vieux Charles”, you can spot a repair done on one of the wings: a postal stamp put on a bullet hole.
Another aircraft worth admiring in this hall is an all metal Junkers, a type that frightened the allies so much that upon the end of the war they ordered them all to be either seized or destroyed.
Last: there is what I believe is the only surviving command nacelle of a Zeppelin.
You could climb in it when you filmed this, not anymore, sadly, but it remains visible in the new configuration, VERY steampunk!
The terminal itself is remarkable in the sense that it is I think the oldest one to still be visitable.
Last anecdotes: there is, somewhere in the restricted areas of the airfield, the remnants of Chuck Yeager’s mustang, when he crashed there, and by remnants I mean puddle of molten metal left where it fell.
Also, if you get the chance to return, go to the opposite side of the runway, on the Dugny commune; you will find some hidden treasures there, first of which two remaining French navy hangars that are now use by NGOs rebuilding old airframes, notably a Lancaster, or a gearless French proto jet: the Baroudeur, alongside other marvels.
In front of these hangars there a lawn where some German concrete training bombs lay scattered as they were found in 1945, a number of not yet refurbished birds (a Concorde test fuselage, an ONERA test space shuttle, very planet of the apes like, a super Constellation, an AT-10 Kansan, THE Caravelle of de Gaulle, an Air France 707 and plenty of others) and finally, the museum’s restoration workshops, with a civilian Sunderland, a B-26, both almost finished and sooooo many other gems.
There!
I think I gave you pretty much everything I know about
this museum that has filled my childhood week ends, and keeps seing me quite often :)

[@oleriis-vestergaard6844]

Focke-Wulf 190 and Heinkel 111 with Rolls-Royce engines so its a spanish variant but very nice indeed

[@vladimirlyubushko7072]

Thanks, at least i don't need to visit this collection after Californian museums...

[@ivanjukic1755]

Thank you for this video -When I was visiting this museum in january 2020 I didnt have a time for prototype hall so now I checked what kind of planes are there.

[@-DIEU-TE-CHERCHE-9923]

Super Vidéo, Merci pour cette visite,
Avez vous réserver votre dernier vol ? Clic sur le Smiley.

[@johnsmith-qe2fd]

Haaa I heard homeboy say “pomme de frit”. French fries at 11:13??? Still remember some French.