Visit to Le Bourget, Paris Airshow 2011

The biennial Le Bourget 2011 was held from the 20^th to the 26^th June at Le Bourget airport, 12 km away from and northeast of Paris. The Le Bourget is one of the top three Air Shows in the world, along with Farnborough (UK) and Singapore air shows. This year, the business atmosphere was somehow cooled and dampened, perhaps reflecting the incomplete economical recovery and worries of many countries, declining defense budgets of the European nations and the US. Hence, the Le Bourget 2011 was surprisingly small in scale, lacking in exhibits and participations from leading aerospace companies. Furthermore, the visitor experience was somehow disappointing. The weather didn't help much either. 

Day 1-3: Plenty of space under Airbus A380 during daily downpour (Credit: Badische Zeitung)

In the exhibition halls and tents

Le Bourget 2011 was not as big and comprehensive as I had expected. The business atmosphere was pretty dampened mainly due to cutting defense budgets in most European nations and the US. Many global leading aerospace companies shied away from the expensive exhibition halls and were only present in their chalets (for business to business meetings) and outdoor aircraft static exhibits, which their costs were mostly absorbed by the US Air Force through their participation. The absence of US leading aerospace companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in the exhibition halls has greatly reduced Le Bourget’s leading position in aerospace exhibition. The conservatively designed exhibition stands of other aerospace giants, such as EADS, Finmeccanica did not help the dampened atmosphere much either. Their exhibition stands were unsophisticated, plain and somehow lacking in exhibits. The only other European aerospace giant, BAE Systems, was not even present in the halls! So much for the business climate this year!

Another personal disappointment, Le Bourget 2011 was very focused on aerospace systems, i.e. fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircrafts and space. I was disappointed that there weren’t more land and naval systems, which were more represented at Farnborough and the Singapore Air Shows.

Fortunately, the climate at the suppliers was much better. I could feel that the suppliers were more upbeat than the aircraft assemblers. In any case, whether Airbus or Boeing wins, globalised suppliers always get a share of them. For example, many French component suppliers, which are located just kilometres away from Airbus headquarter in Toulouse, also supply to Boeing in Everett in the US as well. Similarly, numerous American suppliers supply to Airbus as well.    

The aerospace emerging players such as China, Turkey and South Korea were also present. One of the highlight from the Chinese was the cabin mock-up its newest commercial jet the COMAC C919 was unimpressive and conventional at best. South Korean and Turks showcased their ambitious programs of military helicopters and jets. The Japanese announced some good news about the developmental progress of its newest regional jet MRJ (Mitsubishi Regional Jet).

The Russian presence was quite dominant with its large showcase of recently consolidated aerospace conglomerates such as UAC (United Aircraft Corporation that consolidated MIG, Sukhoi, Tupelov, Yakovlev etc.) and Oboromprom (Russian Helicopters including Kamov and Mil) and their so call newest products, actually heavily upgraded versions of their legendary Cold War products.

Russian UAC exhibition stand

The flying display

As much as I would like to finish my job of visiting the supplier stands in the exhibition halls, it was hard for me (perhaps anyone) to stay in-door whenever the roaring sound of high-speed jets started echoing in the halls, which served intuitively like calling bells for the visitors to move to the next exhibition program. The daily flying display started at 13:30 and ended at around 17:30.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very kind from the first day to the fourth day as the dark low level clouds obscured blue sky, greater restricting the altitude of the flying display (especially for the fighter jets doing vertical looping).

Flying premieres of the vertical wings

The flight show schedule was adjusted daily according to the weather situation. Day two commenced with low flying helicopters such as Siebel unmanned Camcopter, the AgustaWestland AW149 helicopter, Eurocopter X3 hybrid rotorcraft and EC175 helicopter and lower-decibel generating lightweight aircrafts. This year saw the premiere flying display of the Eurocopter high-speed X3 hybrid rotorcraft (I refuse to call it a helicopter). However, the X3 failure to demonstrate its maximum speed called for some disappointment from the spectators. The X3 flew the standard helicopter flight manoeuvre and skipped the highly anticipated high-speed level fly-pass over the runway.

X3 Hybrid High-speed Rotorcraft

The fast jets

We were rewarded for our patience in the drizzling rain with some clearing of the cloud and finally, the fast jets rocketed one by one into the sky. Without saying, the first was the Dassault Rafale fighter jet in its special 30,000 flight hours commemorative dark grey colours, which didn’t make it easier to spot in the grey cloudy sky. Fortunately, the French air force pilot flew impressive low-level stunts beneath the cloud layer.

Dassault Rafale in commemorative colours pulling negative Gs (Credit: Badische Zeitung)

Rafale at full-afterburner (Credit: M. Scott Mahaskey/Staff)

The Eurofighter Typhoon also showed its presence at the display but it was definitely flown by, my guess, by a less experience Italian air force fighter pilot. To my disappointment, the 5 minutes display of the Eurofighter was much less spectacular than that of the Rafale and it was really a shame that the pilot didn’t push the aircraft to its limit. The Eurofighter flew more like a Cessna, making boring and unimpressive loops and rolls throughout the display. Even before the end of the display, my mind was already telling me how the cash-strapped Italian government has been punishing its Air Force by cutting flying hours of its Eurofighter pilots.

The legendary Lockheed Martin F-16 Viper also flew this year and, as usual, put up a respectable and familiar display of very tight and high-speed turns, which put Eurofighter to shame. It was piloted by US Air Force pilot based in Germany and was worth every cents of my ticket.       

The whispering giant Airbus A380 in Korean Air and Airbus colours

It was a free marketing gag for the Korean Airline (KAL) as Airbus borrowed KAL’s not yet delivered A380 for some aerobatic flying during the show. Looking from the ground, the A380 looked more like an airship than a plane, performing some manoeuvre more likely performed by an Zeppelin airship. Anyway, it’s always interesting to watch the whispering giant rolling in the sky. True to its well-known nickname, the whispering giant, the A380 flew with an eerily low noise. For unknown reason, Airbus finally brought in its own A380 in Airbus colours from Toulouse on the third day of the air display.  

Whispering A380 in Korean Airline colours showing off a steep take-off

Extreme aerobatics by the little giants

The Alenia/Lockheed Martin C-27J military cargo aircraft flew like a light aerobatic jet, performing loops and aerodynamically impossible stunts. The rudder and rear stabilizers authority was very good and the aircraft responded impressively to each rudder and stabilizer deflections visibly. The aircraft was performing slaloms in the air just like a car. The most spectacular part with the aggressively steep and high speed landing approach, somehow similar to the Sarajevo landing approach (a defensive landing manoeuvre against hostile firing during landing) often performed by the German Luftwaffe Transall C-160, which ended with a thrust reversal manoeuvre that displayed the C-27J reverse rolling capability in case it overshot its parking space.

The C-27J was followed by its bigger brother the Lockheed Martin C-130J, the largest version of the venerable C-130 series of military cargo aircraft. The C-130J also put up a respectable aerial aerobatic display. Besides the manufacturer of both cargo aircrafts, both aircrafts use the same engine, which reduces the logistical footprint immensely. Both aircrafts have really succeeded in impressing the spectators and in shedding off the common belief that cargo aircrafts are boring to fly.

 Alenia/Lockheed Martin C-27J rolling steeply overhead before final approach

The green flyers

This year flying display also marked the increasingly emphasis on future propulsion systems and fuels. There were 2 display aircrafts that use hybrid and electric propulsion systems. They are from Diamond aircraft and EADS Innovation Works. Furthermore, Boeing flew in its 747 flying test-bed that uses fuel mixture containing 15% bio-fuel. Most importantly, the highlight of the event was the Swiss Solar Impulse aircraft, which didn’t make its debut flying display at Le Bourget due to poor weather. The Solar Impulse uses 100% solar energy for propulsion.

Review of Le Bourget Air Show

Overall, Le Bourget 2011 was a good show, even though the event did not turn out to be as big and interesting as I had expected. Personally, I thought that Farnborough and Singapore Air Show are better organised and more successful in the following ways.

First, the visitor experience at Le Bourget was less than satisfactory (I’m being very polite and diplomatic here). The signboards, marshalling and organisation were very confusing and rather ineffective. It seemed that the welfare of the visitors was not adequately addressed (too little visitor centric planning). Amenities such as café, washrooms, information counters were poorly indicated. The washrooms were embarressingly small and absolutely insufficient to cater to the visitors (it was already bad enough on trade days; you can imagine what would happen on public days!).

Second, the French organisers have not made use of the opportunity to generate profit from food and beverages. Pity that the renowned French cuisine was not presented at all at the event. What a waste to showcase French gastronomy to the international visitors! Wherever I went, I saw the disappointment from the look of many international visitors, who had to swallow dry baguettes, French chocolate donuts and sandwiches throughout the event in desperation of satisfying their hunger.

Third, security was surprisingly weak. All visitors were only given a visual and magnetic scan at the entrance. There was no CT-scan or explosive scan at all. By looking at the number of high ranking politicians, military top brasses and senior business executives present at the event, one could imagine the consequence of any lunatic actions.   

Finally, I felt that Le Bourget could be better organised in public transportation (not only for the ingress and egress to the exhibition but also considering the entire transportation system in Paris). Coincidently or rather deliberately, some Paris subway drivers and staffs (underground railway transportation) decided to strike in the same week and caused massive havoc in Paris transportation. The frequency of Le Bourget shuttle busses were very low. A typically 45 minute trip from Paris downtown to Le Bourget took almost 3 hours for visitors. The train stations and bus stops looked like refugee camps in Africa. There were no transportation marshals to alleviate the situation. I felt that there was not a slightest sign that the French city had done any pre-emptive planning in support of the Le Bourget Air Show in case of such agonising and unfortunate situation. I think if the French organisers would put a little more of its systems engineering from its world-class aerospace industry into its world-class event, it would have turned out much better. The benchmark has been lowered for next year’s Farnborough and Singapore Air Show. 

End of Show - Until 2013!