For the Sparkies

This is Ampere's apartment on Rue Monge.

Car Pron Coming

Le Bourget - WW 2

Le Bourget - Inter War Years

Some of the coolest exhibits were in the hall for the inter war years. These 20s and 30s aircraft may not be familiar to plane spotters as these are what Europe was doing during that era.

This is a 1920s commercial liner that flew Paris - London.

This plane was the first to fly Paris to New York.

This is a German glider like the ones they used to train their pilots.

More gliders.

Le Bourget - Normandie Nieman

In 1942, Gen DeGaulle decided that the Free French should be more visible in the fight against Germany. He sent a group of French pilots to Russia. This group became known at the Normandie Nieman Regiment. They flew Yak 3s like the one below with Russian support crews. They completed 5,240 missions with 273 confirmed kills and 36 probable. (Link). Unfortunately, the descriptive plaque is in French but I think it describes the damage to the aircraft and its original paint. Anyway, it's a piece of little known history.

Le Bourget - A4D (Oops, AD4) Skyraider

This Skyraider is in the WW II section, probably because they didn't know where else to put it. It came too late to be in WW II (it first flew in March 1945) but it did fight in Korea and Vietnam. France purchased about 100 of them in 1959. This one is painted in the colors of a unit that served in the Algerian War. (note the drip pan under the hydraulics)

Head Count

Saudi Arabia only managed 3 executions in April. All of them were drug related. Their year to date total is a measly 25.