Three decades of the cold war
On this 100th anniversary of the Paris Air Show French journalist Gil Roy continues his reflections on the greatest moments from the salon du Bourget’s ill

On this 100th anniversary of the Paris Air Show French journalist Gil Roy continues his reflections on the greatest moments from the salon du Bourget’s illustrious history with a look at the show became a focal point–thankfully a peaceful one–for the Cold War. The first Paris Air Show, staged at the Grand Palais in the center of the French capital in 1909, has for a long time been a true global gathering of the aerospace and defense industries. Roy’s series of reminiscences about the show’s evolution concludes on page 36.

For more than 30 years, the Paris Air Show was one of the rare places where the U.S. and the Soviet Union could show off their air power face-to-face without dragging the whole world into danger. The event had not yet become the mainly professional meeting that it is today and the public was passionate about the conquest of air and space.