An uncovered fuselage survives at the museum. Showing the seats for the 5 soldiers it could carry

An uncovered fuselage survives at the museum

An uncovered fuselage survives at the museum

A strange looking aircraft, built in 1939. It has a high-set canard wing and a narrow rear fuselage rather than a fin.

Delivered to the Gendarmerie as 2009/JBL in 1972. Preserved at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace from 2007.

18 white was the marking of this aircraft when it arrived in Paris in 1945. 21 white was a previous identity, that appeared during restoration.

This Spitfire is in reality RR263 and was presented to France by the British Government to honour the memory of the French pilots that flew with the Royal Air Force. It was repainted into the colours of the plane flown by Adjt Charasse of 340 Squadron, Ile de France.

This C-160 acquired its name as it accompanied three Zairian C-130 Hercules to parachute soldiers of the French Foreign Legion into Kolwezi in May, 1978 to free French hostages after Katangese soldiers, supported by Angola, occupied the city. The plane was retired to the museum in August, 2012.

This 727-22F was built in January 1966, and purchased by FedEx in June 1989, going on fly with the company for more than 18 years. The plane was donated to the museum during the 2007 Paris Air Show and is one of 35 of the type that FedEx donated to various aviation schools, aeronautical museums and other institutions all over the world.

In the 1950s, designer René Leduc was awarded a contract for two examples of a short-range supersonic interceptor, intended to fulfill the high-speed interceptor role. The first prototype had a thick barrel-like monocoque fuselage with a coaxial turbojet-ramjet powerplant to enable unassisted operation, and a protruding nose section housing the cockpit and escape capsule for the pilot. It reached a speed of Mach 1.15 in December 1957, but was damaged shortly afterwards when it caught fire while taking off. The program was cancelled shortly afterwards. This is the unflown second prototype 022.

The C.8 was built by Juan La Cierva in England in association with Avro following an order from the Air Ministry of Great Britain. This made its first flight in July 1926 but later superceded by the C.8L-II in May 1928. As G-EBYY, it participated in the King's Cup, made a 4850 km tour of the UK and then completed an incident-free crossing of the Channel from London (Croydon) to Paris (Le Bourget). This was the first international flight of a rotary-wing machine which earned Cierva numerous accolades and prizes.

The F-86D Sabre Dog was an all-weather interceptor, from which in 1953 an "export" model, the F-86K, was developed equipped with a fire control system and guns. From 1956 to 1962, the 13e escadre de chasse operated 60 frames for the single purpose of opposing an attack by Soviet muclear bombers.

After the USA, France was the biggest user of H-34A Choctaw. The AdlA used 215 from 1959 onwards, including 155 built under license by Sud Aviation. This H-34 was the first of the Sud airframes to be delivered.

Although painted as N556, this is actually N976. In the spring of 1914, Gustave Delage designed a small (baptized "Bébé" Nieuport because of its size) single-seat biplane to take part in the Gordon-Bennett Cup. From this humble beginning, a combat aircraft emerged in Autumn 1915 with great agility and manoeuvrability, due in large part because the lower wing is slightly smaller than the upper wing. This example is on display in the colours of Commander Charles de Tricornot de Rose, an air combat pioneer who grouped these new fighters into dedicated units, so they could operate together more effectively.