The Paris air show: while commercial aviation, and particularly Airbus, literally stole the show by announcing an incredible profusion of contracts for airliners, the defence aspect was comparatively dwarfed, particularly in terms of novelties in the military aircraft department contrasting, however, with the situation of new defence sub-systems.

Summary

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Shows & exhibitions

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The Paris air show: while commercial aviation, and particularly Airbus, literally stole the show by announcing an incredible profusion of contracts for airliners, the defence aspect was comparatively dwarfed, particularly in terms of novelties in the military aircraft department contrasting, however, with the situation of new defence sub-systems.

In the air, the two notable neck-twisters were the Schiebel Camcopter S-100 (see title picture) and the Eurocopter X3 demonstrator - although the Rafale's and the C-27J's manoeuvres were quite spectacular. While its livery could lead one's mind to believing that it had been acquired by the US Coast guard, the Camcopter in fact sported the colours of the Austrian flag.

Drones

The Camcopter, which is still the only European drone of its category to be in operational service in various parts of the world, is also the only one to have been granted authorisation thus far to operate in full drone mode at international air shows. It took off and landed in automatic mode and provided a good sample of its capabilities by transmitting the images it captured of the Bourget grounds in real time on large screens.

Vertilift drones of this size are still being eyed by various navies around the world, particularly in Europe, which is the reason why Hans Schiebel has embarked on 'dieseling' the original Austro AE50R...

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