It is one of those events that forever marks the history of an airline.  On 23 November 2009, Air France entered the Airbus A380 into service, culminating a project it had pursued alongside Airbus for over thirteen years.

Airbus-Boeing, two different visions

It all began in 1996.  For eight years, Airbus had been examining the potential of a very large aircraft programme.  It was generally accepted that, in order to absorb growth in traffic, large aircraft were needed on over-stretched routes, as opposed to increased flight frequency.  For a while, the European aircraft manufacturer worked with Boeing to share the production costs of this kind of wide-body aircraft.  The Americans withdrew from the project, in disagreement over the strategic approach.  The Seattle company considered that growth could better be dealt with using medium-size aircraft serving a broader range of airports.  It set its engineers to work designing a 300-seat long-haul aircraft: this project ultimately gave us the  B-787 Dreamliner (entry into service scheduled for 2010).  Airbus was then alone in pursuing a Superjumbo programme, giving it the code name of A3XX.

A large-scale Europe-wide project

Beginning in 1996, several airlines including Air France joined in the adventure.  The objective was to design a commercial aircraft that could carry up to 853 passengers, 380 more than a Boeing 747-400.  On 19 December 2000, the management of Airbus definitively approved the project, then officially baptized A380. 50 orders were quickly placed (more than 200 have been placed to date). Even if some engines are produced in the United States (for example the ones chosen to equip Air France aircraft), the XXL jetliner became the very symbol of European construction.  The fuselage is built in France and Germany, the empennage and tail in Spain, the wings and some engines in the United Kingdom, and the final assembly takes place in Toulouse. A complex arrangement, with certain drawbacks: some of the cables, produced in Hamburg, turned out to be too short to be connected to the other parts of the aircraft at the time of assembly in Toulouse. There were many delays, up to the time the first aircraft was delivered.

Global enthusiasm

In 2002, the elements of the first aircraft were transported to Toulouse, where they were assembled in 2003.  The maiden test flight took place in 2004 and on 18 January 2005, the aircraft was presented to the press in Toulouse.  The audience of more than 5,000 included the heads of the four European countries participating in the project.  The first flight was on 12 April and on that day, at 10:30 am, a roar rose from the crowd to salute the exploit of the Airbus teams and the pilots, Jacques Rosay and Claude Lelaie.   That maiden flight was the first in a long series of tests leading to certification of airworthiness on 12 December 2006.   Many doubts persisted during that period, due to the delays in production, but also much enthusiasm.  On its promotional tours, people went crazy over the Superjumbo, from Hong Kong to New York.

A 2.6-hectare hangar for the Air France giant

On 15 October 2007, the first A380 was delivered to Singapore Airlines, which put its flagship into service just ten days later, between Singapore and Sydney. Air France had to wait two years to follow suit.  That was the time it took to fine-tune a launch that impacted every sector of the company, from personnel training (540 cabin attendants, in particular, were trained for the aircraft) to adaptation of infrastructure.  Specific equipment had to be designed for the runway and for maintenance (a special 2.6-hectare hangar was built at Paris-Charles de Gaulle).

On 29 October 2009, Airbus delivered the first of twelve A380s ordered by Air France.  It has a capacity of 538 passengers.  The main deck represents the equivalent of a Boeing 777-200 and the upper deck, that of an Airbus A340-300. Air France can now rationalize its flights on routes with heavy traffic, replacing two flights departing at similar times with a single flight offering the same number of seats.

The first Air France A380 operated its inaugural flight between Paris and New York on 20 November 2009, with many important guests on board and 380 passengers who bought their tickets at an auction, with all proceeds going to humanitarian projects selected by the Air France Foundation.  Three days later, the A-380 officially entered the company’s fleet.

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Beginning in 1935, the Douglas DC-3 revolutionized air transport.  More than 13,000 of the legendary aircraft were built, setting a record that is unlikely ever to be matched.

On 17 December 1935, the prototype DST-114 RHD manufactured by Douglas landed at Clover Field in California after 1 hour and 40 minutes of a flight so uneventful it was not even immortalized by photo.  But a new chapter had opened in the history of aviation: that of the Douglas DC-3, a product of the rivalry between America’s early airlines.

Stronger than the Boeing 247

Two years earlier, the Boeing 247 made its mark on the world of air transport with an all-metal structure, a cantilever monoplane wing unit and retractable landing gear.  But it belonged exclusively to United Airlines. TWA therefore turned to other manufacturers, including Douglas, which came up with the DC-1 (Douglas Commercial) followed by the DC-2, capable of crossing the United States in some fifteen hours with 14 passengers on board. Major international carriers put in their orders, signalling the demise of the Boeing 247.  On the strength of its success, Douglas was called on by American Airlines to design a plane for night flights between Dallas and Los Angeles: a model with 14 berths (dubbed the DST for Douglas Sleeper Transport), also produced by Douglas in a traditional configuration, with 21 seats.

The first profitable commercial aircraft

The DC-3 was born and, instantly, orders flooded in from around the world.  The little newcomer from the California company was not only more modern than its competitors but, with 21 seats, also the guarantee of unprecedented profitability.  On the eve of World War II, Douglas controlled 90% of the world’s civil aircraft market.  In the United States, three out of every four commercial flights were operated with the  DC-3.

The hero of D-Day

The rest is History with a capital H.  In its military configurations, the C-47, C-53 or Dakota, the DC-3 became the legendary troop transport and parachute aircraft of the Second World War, and the hero of Operation Neptune during the D-Day landing.  In 1945, Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, declared “Four types of equipment contributed directly to victory in Africa and in Europe: the bulldozer, the jeep, the GMC truck and the C-47.”

The mail “workhorse”

Hundreds of C-47 (nicknamed gooney birds – or albatrosses – by the Americans) were available after the war.  Adapted for the needs of civil air transport, they entered the fleets of airlines the world over.  Air France alone operated 70 of them throughout its network (Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia and even in the Americas).  They served in all sectors, training, cargo and, above all, air mail, at the Centre d’Exploitation Postale (called the “Night Post”, where the DC-3 ended its long career in 1969).

Douglas suspended production of the DC-3 in 1947.  By then, 13,641 of them had rolled off the production line, setting a record that will not soon be matched…

Fiche technique

In 1949, the “Breguet Deux Ponts” became one of the first wide-body aircraft in history, ushering in a new era for Air France medium-haul cargo operations.

The Breguet Deux Ponts” 761S  made its maiden flight on 15 February 1949 out of Vélizy-Villacoublay, near Paris.  It was a singular aircraft with a sleek silhouette that was instantly recognizable, being one of the world’s first two-deck aircraft, sixty years before the Airbus A380.

A “combi” aircraft designed by Louis Breguet

At the outset, the manufacturer intended it for the French army. The idea was to offer a passenger-cargo aircraft that could carry more than 2,000 soldiers together with military materiel.  The upper deck was reserved for passengers and the lower for more passengers or for equipment.  Its polyvalence was a major asset at the time.

And yet, the mammoth bird elicited more curiosity than admiration.  Many potential buyers shunned the four-engine plane because of its high operating costs.

Over the Mediterranean

Nonetheless, the French army initially accepted to fit out three military models, the Br. 761S. Air France then took delivery of 12 civil aviation versions, the Br. 763 “Provence”, the first of which entered service on 17 March 1953.

From that date on, despite its drawbacks, the flying ship was a great success for Air France.  It essentially flew between the continent and Algeria (Algiers- Marseille-Lyon), and on the Algerian domestic network.  Its maintenance base was the Air France maintenance centre in Algiers.

The “flying truck” of the Sahara

The “Deux Ponts” was robust enough to be able to land on poor terrain and to carry heavy, bulky loads.  With its integrated stairs and ramps, it could be loaded and unloaded with great ease.   It was the “flying truck of the Sahara”, Air France’s first real cargo aircraft, particularly well suited to carrying voluminous equipment to oil drilling sites in Algeria.  In its combined passenger-cargo configuration, it could carry close to 12 tonnes of cargo in all: twice the capacity of  a Douglas DC-4! And in its all-passenger configuration, it could transport up to 107 people (59 on the upper deck and 48 on the lower).  This was an ideal version for peak travel periods, to take vacationers to the French Riviera or Corsica.  As early as 1950, the “Breguet Deux Ponts” introduced the era of  mass transport.

Superseded by the jets

In 1959, Air France added the first jet planes to its fleet.  In terms of capacity, the Breguet Deux Ponts”  was still competitive, but its operating costs were prohibitive in comparison with the Caravelle, which flew twice as fast while consuming significantly less fuel.  In 1962, after the end of the war in Algeria, traffic over the Mediterranean dropped drastically. The “Deux Ponts” was gradually replaced by jets, even for air freight, yielding its place to the Boeing B-707 Cargo “Pélican”.  The last Breguet 763 operated by Air France made its final flight between Paris and London on 31 March 1971.

The day of the “Deux Ponts” had ended, after eighteen years of exemplary service.

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A spin-off of a famous “made in UK” military patrol boat, the Short Sandringham Bermuda was a huge hit with many airlines throughout the world, including RAI in French Polynesia.

As World War Two glimmered on the horizon, the British were recognized champions in the field of hydroplane design.  It was a means of transport often chosen to link up the territories of  His Majesty around the globe.  Several aircraft manufacturers built up undisputed expertise in this area: one of these was Short Brothers.

The “flying porcupine”

When war broke out, the Belfast manufacturer put the finishing touches to a military craft that soon became a legend, the Short S-25 Sunderland.  Its wide range of action made it a formidable submarine-chaser.  The boat the Germans called the “flying porcupine” also played an important role in evacuating troops, especially during the campaigns in Greece and Crete.

The birth of the Sandringham

After 1945, the military hero went through several civilian reincarnations, one of which was the Short Sandringham.  At the request of the British flag-carrier (BOAC), Short perfected an aircraft capable of carrying 24 passengers for day flights and 16 for night flights.  This was the Short Sandringham 1, which was followed by six other versions, giving a total of 26 aircraft in all, that joined the fleets of airlines the world over, from Argentina to New Zealand.  The seventh and final series, the Short Sandringham 7, was composed of 3 aircraft, the famous Bermudas.  These were commissioned by BOAC to fly to the Far East and Australia, and later sold to private airlines in Australia and the French Caribbean.

An eventful career…

One of these latter planes has been restored and now lives in the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum, following an incredible career.  The Saint-George was built in Rochester (England) in 1944 and flew until 1950 on BOAC’s Far East routes.  In 1954, it was sold to Sir Gordon Taylor, an Australian pilot ennobled for having made the first Australia-Chile flight on the Catalina. Renamed the Frigate Bird III, it shuttled wealthy tourists  around the Pacific islands and offered local air service.  In 1958, TAI (Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux – one of the constituent members of Air France) was looking for hydroplanes for its RAI (inter-island) network.  It fitted the Bermuda with 45 seats and turned it over to Flight Captain Douglas Pearson for a twelve-year career flying between Tahiti and the Leeward Islands.

…a tempestuous retirement

Runways and airports began to spring up around the islands, and the DC-7 could take over from the hydroplanes.  Retirement time had come for the Bermuda. In memory of Sir Gordon Taylor, the Australians attempted to recover the craft but the project was judged too complex, and abandoned.  In the end, it was Captain Pearson’s son who bought the Bermuda and donated it to the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum.  In spring 1978, the aircraft was  disassembled and packed into 22 crates to be transported by a French navy vessel to Brest, and then Rouen and Gennevilliers. After a 13,000-km journey, it arrived at Le Bourget in 1980.  Severely damaged by a storm in 1999, the RAI Bermuda is currently being restored as part of a unique project that promises a new lease on life for the aircraft once on the brink of being totally forgotten.

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Pour en savoir plus :

While wide-body aircraft get far more attention, one family of medium-haul jets represents one of the greatest success stories in the history of aviation: the Airbus A320s (A318, A319, A320, A321).  The jewel in the crown is the A320.  More than 2,200 of them are now found in the fleets of airlines the world over, and the counter has not yet stopped turning: hundreds of others in the series are still in production.  In all, orders have been placed for more than 4,000 units.

Only the Boeing B-737 can beat its record

Among aircraft now in service, only the Boeing 737 can beat the Airbus record (5,000 orders).  It is already forty years old, however, while the young A320 has only twenty years under its belt.

Its story goes back to 1984.  At the time, the Europeans had wanted for seventeen years to compete with the Boeing 737 in the extremely promising medium-haul market.   After a laborious start, Airbus finally had a winner with the A300, a 270-seater.  The European consortium wanted to develop a complementary “single-aisle” model with 150 seats.  A transnational project had already been in the study phase for several years for a 160-seat twin-engine “JET” (Joint European Transport).   The programme was taken over by Airbus and launched officially in 1984 under the name Airbus A320.

A crucible of innovation

Even before the launch, orders for 80 A320s had been received from five different airlines, including Air France.  The fact is that behind its sober exterior, the A320 is truly an innovative marvel.  It was the first commercial airliner to be equipped with “fly-by-wire”  controls.  It was also the first to use two mini-joysticks replacing the traditional bulky control column.  It had fully digitized instruments in the cockpit (EFIS: Electronic flight Instrumentation System): another first.  Above all, it was the first aircraft designed around the concept of “communality”: maintenance and spare parts could be standardized within the growing Airbus 320 family (A318, A319, A320, A321) and crew type rating could be rationalized; airlines were obviously attracted by the economies of scale on the horizon.

Inaugural flight over the Champs Elysées

As a result, on 22 February 1987, the date of the inaugural flight of the A320, 15 airlines had made commitments for close to 400 aircraft.  Never before had so many orders been placed for a European aircraft before it even took to the sky.  Air France was the first to accept delivery of the A320.   On 23 March 1988, it made a 30-minute flight out of Paris-Charles de Gaulle, heading up the Champs-Elysées at an altitude of 500 metres with, among the VIPs on board, the Prime Minister of the time, Jacques Chirac.  The aircraft was put into service on 18 April on the Paris-Düsseldorf-Berlin route.

The Air France “mascot”

Since that time, the A320 has become a “mascot” for Air France. 82 of the aircraft have been put into service and 65 remain in the fleet today: a record. In 2008, an A320 was chosen to be the “ambassador” at celebrations commemorating the 75^th anniversary of Air France. It was repainted in the 1946 livery and baptized “Pays de Roissy”, the name of an association that seeks to develop links between the municipalities around Roissy and the world of air transport. In particular, it introduced a “one commune, one aircraft” campaign under which each of the communes in the region was associated with an Air France A320. Today, 22 aircraft bearing such names as Gressy and Mortefontaine are flying to the four corners of the earth. It is one way for Air France to keep its history alive and to be, once again, a standard-bearer for the regions of France, as it was in the Sixties with its Boeing 707s baptized Château de Sully and Château de Versailles.

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Monsieur Gabriel Evêque, Président de l’association France DC3,

Monsieur Jacques Lumbroso, Vice président de l’association France DC3,

Monsieur Gérard Sausse, association France DC3,

Monsieur Yves Monnier, association France DC3,

Monsieur Jean-Claude Ronsiaux, association France DC3

Agence Audiovisuelle Air France (DXVO) et prticulièrement Laurent Masson (DXVO)

Air France Industries.

Patrimoine Historique & Culturel Air France

Monsieur Paul Pernel, Directeur Régional Air France pour la région Centre jusqu’en 1987,

Monsieur Camille Allaz, Directeur du fret Air France,

Monsieur Serge Peyral du Fret,

ainsi que tout le personnel de l’escale fret de Lyon, et Mr Franck Garbarz

Crédits photos : Association Musée Air France, Patrimoine Historique & Culturel Air France

L’association « Les Ailes de la Ville » :
Mr Rachid Bradaï, Mr Patrick Warlus, Mlle Ila Degui, Mlle Benoite Lutu Mambu

Le Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace du Bourget :
Mr Gérard Feldzer, Mme Marie-Christine Poilpré, Mme Claudine Salmon

Le service du Patrimoine Historique et Culturel d’Air France a soutenu depuis le début le projet de restauration du Short Bermuda Sandringham.