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U2461 arriving from BFS

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.

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.