Airbus A380 gets VIP treatment at Paris show

The Airbus A380, prepares to land after performing at the Paris Air Show in le Bourget. Picture / Reuters

LE BOURGET, France - While Airbus and Boeing fought for orders at this week's Paris air show, visitors made it clear that the home team had the star attraction with its new superjumbo A380.

While a few aerospace professionals stopped by the new long-range version of the Boeing 777, hundreds took pictures of the monster A380 double-decker with cameras and cell phones, including a delegation of French policemen who were given special permission to go on board the plane.

A record 480,000 people visited the Paris Air Show which ended on Sunday, organisers said, many of them wanting to see the new Airbus superjumbo A380.

The show-stopper came on Friday as the world's largest jetliner made its first official display flight for the general public, hauling itself gracefully into the air and performing a slow, spectacular turn back over the runway as a long-range A340-600 landed underneath. But along with stardom comes aloofness, and ordinary plane spotters hoping to go inside the A380 were disappointed. It has been parked well away from the crowds for the public part of the show for security reasons.

And inside the main pavilion of the exhibition, even a professional badge will not get you inside an 8 meter long cross-section of the A380.

"We simply can't", explained hostess Elena Zapata-Ferrer.

"This Airbus section was shown in Hamburg, Germany, before, and only professional visitors were supposed to visit it, but they brought their families and children and it became just too much to handle. This time only journalists and very special guests can enter."

But the show was not all about size. Far from the A380, exhibitor TimothÃcee-Criq Leon-Dufour was promoting the new model of his father's "paramotor" construction business - a two-seater buggy with a rear propeller and a parachute.

"This is a good plane and a good car. It's certified to drive on roads in France," he said.

"We sell around 2,000 a year to armies. It's a very cheap vehicle: each car costs between 25 (25,000) and 30,000 euros."

While he sells more aircraft than Airbus and Boeing put together, Leon-Dufour was only disappointed that the flying car was not included in the display programme alongside the airliners, helicopters and fighter aircraft.

"Our car is too small to be shown, and it's a pity, the flight display is meant to be for big aircraft."

- REUTERS