Paris Air Show - History

History

The Paris Air Show traces its history back to the first decade of the 20th century. In 1908, a section of the Paris Automobile Show was dedicated to aircraft. The following year, a dedicated air show was held at the Grand Palais from 25 September to 17 October, during which 100,000 visitors turned out to see products and innovations from 380 exhibitors. There were four further shows before the First World War. The show restarted in 1919, and from 1924 it was held every two years before being interrupted again by the Second World War. It restarted again in 1946 and since 1949, has been held in every odd year.

The air show continued to be held at the Grand Palais, and from 1949 flying demonstrations were staged at Paris Orly Airport. In 1953, the show was relocated from the Grand Palais to Le Bourget. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the show emerged as a powerful international rival to the Farnborough Airshow. The 1971 show featured a full scale mock-up of an Airbus A300 while the new DC-10 and Lockheed Tristar were present at the 1973 edition. Among major accidents, there were two crashes of Convair B-58 Hustler bombers, in 1961 (during aerobatics) and 1965 (during landing).

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