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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0724.PDF
734FLIGHT, 1 June1961 ILLUSTRATED BY FLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS SALON EXTRAORDINAIRE A FIRST APPRAISAL OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH PARIS SHOW Le Bourget, May 29 A FTER five days at this show the visitor's first impressions fall LJk into perspective. The Americans tend to dominate the •*- -*- party, because as well as making good aviation products they are also born showmen: and Strategic Air Command pulled off a great prestige ploy when they flew a B-58 across the Atlantic in less than 3£hr. One stands closest to the altar of international prestige here when contemplating this same Hustler parked wing to wing with the Tu-114. " I'm bigger than you," says the Tu-114. "But I'm faster than you," snorts the B-58. "I'm peaceful and you're nasty and warlike," retorts the Tu-114. In a real conversation a Frenchman is heard to quip that Russia built the Tu-114 primarily for exhibiting at the Salon. Yes, there is exhibitionism in this exhibition, but inside the prestige wrapper is a trade show that means business. This is a show where selling, particularly of light aeroplanes, is direct. All day long, customers climb into aeroplanes and fly them; except for the two flying-display days, the sky over Le Bourget is in constant use by demonstrators, with commercial airliners coming and going as on any normal day in the airport's life. Inevitably one imagines the expression on staid Auntie London Heathrow's face at the bare thought of such goings-on. Naturally, the French accent is strong. Entering the big bay- fronted main exhibition hall of the Union Syndicate des Industries Aeronautique one sees, in line abreast, the stands of the big French companies—Sud-Aviation, Breguet, Nord, Dassault, Max Holste and Hurel-Dubois. The eye is arrested at once by the model of Sud's supersonic airliner—a completely surprising exhibit, and not dreamed up by the publicity boys. It is, says a Sud engineer, "exactly representative of the project at its present stage of develop- ment." Then the eye scans the overhead nameboards, and registers the great strength of British participation. There is a third hall this year, Hall C having been added to provide almost half as much floorspace again. Three hundred firms of a dozen nationalities are stall-holders in this aeronautical market place—and the whole thing takes much, much longer to absorb than the last Salon did in 1959. There are surprises other than the Sud supersonic airliner. There is the Max Holste Broussard Major—only a full size maquette, but the real thing is being built. It looks more like a Super Broussard Minor than a Broussard Major, and it is taken seriously by those who have noted the way that the customers (four of them Australian) are jockeying for a place in the queue for the Super Broussard. There are signs of increasing British European-mindedness. Exemplifying this is Red Top; Engins Matra are now working with DH on this Firestreak development. The combination of DH infra-red and Matra radar should also lead to a new air-to-air missile for NATO, based upon Matra's R.53O. Two more complete surprises—the Dassault Spirale III twin- Astazou light transport project, and Pratt and Whitney's prodigious JT11. And attracting a constant press of people is Cdr Alan Shepard's NASA Mercury capsule. This is in the US Space for Peace exhibition under a sort of Dome of Discovery near the missile park. You can touch it—and not be able to resist touching it. Peering inside at the dummy one marvels at the courage of the real man. Nearby can be seen a film—so much more telling than still photographs—of what happens to men when they are weight- less : they dive and twist about like bass seen through a glass-walled aquarium. This space exhibition is really impressive. Nowhere to be seer are any nasty warlike American missiles—obviously a high-le1- Pentagon policy decision. But in the aircraft park there are plent\ of warlike American aeroplanes—five of them Mach 2, like the USN's A3J-1 Vigilante, F4H Phantom II, F8U-2 Crusader, and the USAF's F-104 and F-105. In contrast to the restrained pain!-jobs of the RAF's Victor 2 and Vulcan 2 (whose very roundels, in their pale anti-flash tones, are self-effacing), the US machines are blazoned with stripes, diamonds, lightning flashes and bulges Their crews stand beside them, all looking like the real :ough all-American boys they are, in orange and green flying overalls disporting flamboyant badges and the name of the wearer. It is a great show—perhaps, old Barnum might agree, the greatest show on earth. There is a circus atmosphere, but anyoru. who thinks that no sales battles are won or lost here is mistaken.
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