Musée de l'air et de l'espace

The Musée de l'air et de l'espace (, ) is a French aerospace museum, located at the south-eastern edge of Paris–Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris, and in the commune of Le Bourget."Press Kit 100 years of the International Aerospace Show Paris Le Bourget 15 to 21 June 2009." (Archive) French Aerospace Museum. p. 3 Retrieved on 24 April 2010. It was inaugurated in 1919 after a proposal by the celebrated aeronautics engineer Albert Caquot (1881–1976).

Description

Occupying over 1.5 sq km of land and hangars, it is one of the oldest aviation museums in the world. The museum's collection contains more than 19,595 items, including 150 aircraft, and material from as far back as the 16th century. Also displayed are more modern air and spacecraft, including the prototype for Concorde, and Swiss and Soviet rockets. The museum also has the only known remaining piece — the jettisoned main landing gear — of L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird), the 1927 aircraft which attempted to make the first transatlantic crossing from Paris to New York. On 8 May 1927 Charles Nungesser and François Coli aboard L'Oiseau blanc, a 450-hp Lorraine-powered Levasseur biplane took off from Le Bourget. The aircraft jettisoned its main landing gear (which is stored at the museum), which it was designed to do as part of its transatlantic flight profile, but then disappeared over the Atlantic, only two weeks before Lindbergh's monoplane completed its successful solo non-stop transatlantic flight to Le Bourget from the United States.

Other items of interest range include:

gilded bronze medallion of the Montgolfier brothers, created in 1783 by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741–1828) the Biot-Massia glider (1879) an 1884 electric motor by Arthur Constantin Krebs (1850–1935) the rear gondola of the 1915 Zeppelin LZ 113, equipped with 3 Maybach type HS engines a 1916 SPAD VII aircraft by Blériot-SPAD and flown by French flying ace Georges Guynemer in World War I a 1917 Airco DH.9 aircraft by Geoffrey de Havilland (1882–1965) a 1918 Junkers D.I aircraft by Hugo Junkers (1859–1935) a 1961 Dassault Mirage IIIC by Marcel Dassault (1892–1986) an SSBS S3 surface-to-surface ballistic missile commissioned in 1981 The original Soyuz T-6 reentry capsule used by the first French astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien in 1982 a 2002 Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard model

History The museum completed a new storage hangar in 2024.

Aircraft on display

Grand Gallery

Antoinette VII Blériot XI Voisin-Farman No 1 Santos-Dumont Demoiselle

Between the Wars and Light Aviation Hall Bréguet 14 Caudron C.630 Simoun Farman Goliath Nieuport 11

Oiseau Blanc Potez 53

World War II Hall

Bücker Bü 181 Dewoitine D.520 Douglas A-1 Skyraider Douglas C-47 Skytrain Douglas DC-3 cockpit Focke-Wulf Fw 190 North American P-51 Mustang Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVI V-1 flying bomb

Roundel Hall

Dassault Mirage III Dassault Mystère IV Dassault Ouragan North American F-86D Sabre North American F-100 Super Sabre Republic F-84 Thunderjet

Prototype Hall

Aérospatiale Ludion Dassault Balzac V Leduc 0.10 Nord 1500 Griffon SNCASO Trident Sud-Ouest SO.6000 Triton

Concorde Hall

Concorde (two, F-WTSS prototype and Air France F-BTSD) Concorde 001 is featured in its 1973 Solar Eclipse mission livery, with the special rooftop portholes visible. Dassault Mirage IV. The plane number 9 (F-THAH) was used to drop a live nuclear bomb during the Tamouré nuclear test in 1966. Dassault Mirage 4000 Eurocopter X3"Airbus Helicopters X3 makes its new home at France's national Air and Space museum" Airbus PR, 19 June 2014. Accessed: 19 June 2014. Archive Sud Aviation Caravelle forward fuselage

Tarmac/Exterior Exhibit

Boeing 707 Boeing 747 Ariane 1 (model) Ariane 5 (model) Airbus A380 Douglas DC-8 Canadair CL-215 Lockheed P-2 Neptune Breguet Atlantic Dassault Mercure Transall C-160 Dassault Super Etendard SEPECAT Jaguar Dassault Mirage 4000 Dassault Rafale A

Musée de l'air et de l'espace

Bron en licentie