Diplomatic Cafe: February 05, 2006

Le Bourget Air Show

Old due as I promised a good friend I will upload these images a long time ago. It was hard to cull and select what exactly to post. If you want to see the whole series click on February 05 on the right-hand side column and enjoy the magical mixture of flight, commerce and warfare brought to the masses on a hot summer day.

REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT

For some time now I wanted to post some of the pictures taken last summer at the Le Bourget Air Show near Paris. None of them is necessarily spectacular but they came out ok. No specialty lens no filters, not much thinking but then again this is an air show. Ultimately it is about the flying machines. And the crowds, and the smell of burning fuel and the feeling of joy for no particular reason. Ever since I was a child growing up a few minutes of bicycle ride away from the airport I fell head over heals in love with flying. Countless hours spent in the basement bunker were my private lair was located peering over flight magazines and model planes. Our garden was on the approach flight path for the civilian airport so I started taking pictures of the low flying mostly Russian made passenger planes. Once in a while there were fighter planes or military transport but to my utmost regret I never managed to get those on film as they were seldom and randomly flying. Then after 1989 I made it a rule to watch all the air shows in Bucharest. This time in Le Bourget I was better prepared. The show was a feast for aviation maniacs and kids. I got terribly sunburned but that was a little price to pay. Here are some of the hundreds of pictures taken then. See you in Farnborough this coming summer!http://www.farnborough.com/

Le Bourget the people

Police presence at the show

Superconstellation

The last one of its kind

JSF

The solitude, the harsh loneliness of this weapon of war was telling. The empty chairs and the metallic feel suggest the intensity of an air attack alarm. The lack of human presence make it almost post atomic. Out of context one can build a whole story from this image.

Airbus A380

And believe it or not it flies!

Le Bourget Air Show

The Competition is close at hand. Here shines the Deramliner Boeing 777 while in the background the towering Ariane 4 dominates the entire airfield sending a strong and determined French message: we still have something to say in this both as an airpower and technology source.

Le Bourget Air Show

Paris Le Bourget Air Show

Everybody has something to look at. And as it is a perfect mid summer day, most things appear hot. Searing hot.

She is in charge

How appropriate! Yet another hot looking and obviously self assured woman looking upon the two gentleman in the shadow of a hangar at the Le Bourget Air Show last summer. The dark vs. light division and the motif of a couple of tame looking men in the shadow of a powerful woman. I like it more then all the other pictures I took at the show. Well maybe the Su 27 is a close call.

Su27 Flanker

Oh those Russians ... and their air superiority fighters. This is the one flight everybody was looking for. Well, and the tame European giant of Airbus A380. Hardly comparable in thrill factor. Thousands of people on that scorching hot day were burning their noses under the Parisian skies for a glimpse of this mighty beast. The smell of kerosene and the dead silence when the pilot cuts the engine for the Cobra now that is what air shows are all about.