This year at the Flying Display area the guest of honor at the Paris International Air Show was the Solar Impulse HB-SIA operating on solar energy. Mounted with 12,000 solar cells and four electric engines with a wingspan of 63.4 meters and a weight of 1,600 kilos, the Solar Impulse successfully undertook its flight at the Flying Display area. Due to a failure in the gearbox of the biggest European transport aircraft, the Airbus Military A-400M could not take its place at the flight area. The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules; the Eurofighter Typhoon and Eurocopter X3; the Dassault Aviation Rafal; the F-16 Fighting Falcon Fighter; the Airbus A 380, the Boeing 747-800 and France’s air acrobatics team, the Patrouille de France, met with the viewers over the Paris skies for six days. Just as much as the displays that took place at the Flying Display area, the expected displays that left their appearance to the next Air Show were the new generation F-35 combat aircraft; the T-50 and the J-20 as the most anxiously awaited and talked about aircrafts.



Realizing its 49th anniversary this year, the Paris International Air Show announced new products and new agreements to the world. While AgustaWestland, a participant of Finmeccanica of Italy, disclosed that it had completely taken over the BA609 tilt-rotor project from its partner Bell Helicopter of the U.S., it also launched the General Electric twin-engine CT7-2E1 fitted, long-range and highly efficient AW189 Helicopter with a full authority digital engine control unit (FADEC) and built-in fixed particle separators. On the other hand, the Eurocopter Group introduced the X3 hybrid demonstrator that combines two technologies. In this new design, Eurocopter used the twin-engine, mid-class Dauphin model. The tail rotor was disbanded for the X3 and in its place two propellers were installed on short-span fixed wings. The most advanced Cobra Helicopter produced for the U.S. Marine Corps, the AH-1Z Viper Super Cobra was also displayed at the static area of the Paris Air Show. Prominent with its advanced aerodynamic fuselage compared to its previous model, the Super Cobra enables a wider area vision for pilots with its third generation FLIR camera and, in addition, provides a sensitive strike power. All avionic data is transferred to the helmet mounted system and the pilots with colored and moving maps are able to eliminate threat factors rapidly with a low margin of error.
The multinational European defence industry corporation MBDA introduced one of its new missiles, the Perseus, at the Paris International Air Show. In this new system, the missile has a “guidance” feature mounted on top that immediately changes direction once civilian targets are identified during flight. Igniting at a distance, the missile self-destructs without any losses.

New concepts also came to light at the Air Show. First, the concept aircraft “ZEHST” (Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation) developed by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) was introduced. Able to achieve a speed of 4,800 km per hour, the aircraft is expected to be in service in 2050.

Another aircraft concept at the Paris International Air Show was announced by the HyperMach company. Planned to be built after two decades, the aircraft was developed for businessmen. With a passenger capacity of 20, the new aircraft will be able to fly 3.5 times the speed of sound where gravity is less thanks to its hybrid engines.

TAI AND TEI WERE AT THE PARIS AIR SHOW

With 2,113 participants from 45 nations at the Paris International Air Show only TAI and TEI took part from Turkey. TAI, aside from the Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Airborne Vehicle “ANKA,” the Turkish Primary and Basic Trainer Aircraft (“HÜRKU?”) and the T-129 Tactical Reconnaissance and Attack Helicopter (“ATAK”) and the modernization projects applied for different platforms such as the F-16, C-130, T-38 and S-70, TAI, with JSF and A400M leading the way, presented a TAI flight school with the international projects it has participated. TAI also introduced the Türk Kabin ?çi Sistemleri Sanayi A.?. (TCI) that was jointly founded with Turkish Airlines (THY) and THY Teknik A.?. in December 2010 to manufacture aircraft inner cabin products in Turkey and conducted bilateral negotiations with countries that wish to undertake joint collaboration in this area. TAI also signed new collaboration agreements at the Paris International Air Show. An “Airbus Section 18 Full Rate” Agreement with Airbus Corporation and “Cooperation in UAVs” MoU with EADS were signed. Accordingly, TAI will be the sole source in manufacturing the 18th section fuselage panels for Airbus. The MoU with EADS, on the other hand, will provide evaluations in international UAV projects that EADS is a partner.

The other Turkish company taking part at the Paris International Air Show TEI exhibited the TJ55 and TP-1X turbo engines that power the “?im?ek” and “Tuna” Target Aircrafts for the UAV target drones built by TAI. TEI also put to the forefront at the Fair the structural fabricated parts, discs, shafts, sealing components as well as its assembly and testing capabilities. Bilateral negotiations were conducted with Sikorsky, Rolls Royce, ITP, General Electric, MTU and Volvo on sub-structure works and sale of engines in international markets.