Story ID: 474
Debutantes Take Bow at Paris Salon
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: The list of new aircraft that were flown to the Paris Air Show is surprisingly large this year.
Word Count: 292
As the aviation industry convened in Paris last month for the city’s biennial Salon du Bourget, aircraft manufacturers and integrators pulled out all the stops to show their newest flying machines to visitors from all over the world. They also hoped to solidify some sales, or at least pave the way for future transactions. There were 130 aircraft at this year’s show (36 of them participating in the flying display), more than enough to satisfy the curiosity of the most avid aviation geek, or fit the needs of any type of buyer. 

The debutantes were wide-ranging this year. Representing the airliner sector were Mitsubishi’s MRJ-90; the split-winglet Airbus A380plus and the A321neo and A350-1000; and from Boeing the 787-10 Dreamliner and 737 Max 9. Embraer’s beautifully painted E192-E2 “Profit Hunter” made its first show appearance, as did Antonov’s re-engined An-132D.

Flying the bizav flag, Gulfstream brought the soon-to-be-certified G500 fly-by-wire business jet, equipped with a production interior. Not to be outdone by the heavy metal at Paris was Cirrus Aircraft’s recently certified single-engine Vision Jet.  

Two other small aircraft made their first appearance at the show: L3’s Longsword and the LASA T-Bird from Bulgaria, both adapted from agricultural airplanes for military applications. Embraer’s KC-390 multi-mission military transport flew during the daily demonstrations, as did Lockheed Martin’s F-35A fighter. Also joining this year’s military parade was Lockheed Martin’s LM-100J, the civilian cargo version of the C-130J Hercules; the Kawasaki Aerospace P-1, which features the world’s first application of a fly-by-light flight control system; and the Wing Loong II UAV, making its first appearance outside China.

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