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Musée de l'air et de l'espace facts for kids

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Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace
800px-Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace.jpg
Established 1919
Location Paris – Le Bourget Airport
Le Bourget, France
Type Aviation museum

The Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace (which means Air and Space Museum in English) is a fantastic museum in France. It's all about planes, rockets, and space travel! You can find it at the Paris–Le Bourget Airport, just north of Paris. This museum first opened its doors in 1919. It was the idea of a famous engineer named Albert Caquot.

Explore the Air and Space Museum

This museum is one of the oldest aviation museums in the world. It covers a huge area, about 150,000 square meters. Inside, you'll find more than 19,595 items. This includes 150 real aircraft! Some items are very old, dating back to the 16th century.

You can also see modern air and spacecraft. A special highlight is the first-ever prototype for the Concorde supersonic jet. There are also rockets from Switzerland and the Soviet Union.

The Mystery of L'Oiseau Blanc

The museum holds a very special piece of history: the main landing gear from L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird). This plane tried to make the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. Pilots Charles Nungesser and François Coli took off from Le Bourget. The plane was designed to drop its landing gear to fly lighter. It did this, but then disappeared over the Atlantic. This happened just two weeks before Charles Lindbergh successfully flew solo across the Atlantic to Le Bourget.

Amazing Things to See

The museum has many other cool items, such as:

  • A special medal of the Montgolfier brothers, who invented hot air balloons. It was made in 1783.
  • The Biot-Massia glider from 1879.
  • An electric motor from 1884, made by Arthur Constantin Krebs.
  • Part of a 1915 Zeppelin airship.
  • A 1916 SPAD VII aircraft. This plane was flown by the French flying ace Georges Guynemer in World War I.
  • A 1917 Airco DH.9 aircraft.
  • A 1918 Junkers D.I aircraft.
  • A 1961 Dassault Mirage IIIC jet.
  • An SSBS S3 surface-to-surface ballistic missile from 1981.
  • A model of the 2002 Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard plane.

Aircraft on Display

The museum has many different halls, each showing planes from different times or for different purposes.

Grand Gallery

This hall features some very old and important aircraft:

  • Antoinette VII
  • Blériot XI
  • Voisin-Farman No 1
  • Santos-Dumont Demoiselle
747
A huge Boeing 747 plane

Between the Wars and Light Aviation Hall

Here you can see planes from between the two World Wars and smaller aircraft:

  • Bréguet 14
  • Farman Goliath
  • Oiseau Blanc (the plane that disappeared!)
  • Nieuport 11
Aircraft at Bourget Air & Space Museum
A unique Cierva C.8 Autogiro
Concorde Air France Musee du Bourget P1020006
The famous Concorde supersonic jet
Bourget Air & Space Museum
A classic Caudron Simoun plane
F-WWDD Airbus A380 (40158085932)
The massive Airbus A380

World War II Hall

This section is dedicated to aircraft from World War II:

Roundel Hall

This hall displays various jet fighters:

  • Dassault Mirage III
  • Dassault Mystère IV
  • Dassault Ouragan
  • North American F-86D Sabre
  • North American F-100 Super Sabre
  • Republic F-84 Thunderjet

Prototype Hall

Here you can see experimental aircraft and prototypes:

  • Aérospatiale Ludion
  • Dassault Balzac V
  • Leduc 0.10
  • Nord 1500 Griffon
  • SNCASO Trident
  • Sud-Ouest SO.6000 Triton
So6000-triton-bourget
The SO.6000 Triton n°3 prototype

Concorde Hall

This hall is home to two Concorde jets!

  • One is the F-WTSS prototype.
  • The other is the Air France F-BTSD.
  • Concorde 001 was used for a special mission in 1973 to study a solar eclipse. You can see its special rooftop windows.
  • Also here is a Dassault Mirage IV. Plane number 9 (F-THAH) was used to drop a live nuclear bomb during a test in 1966.
  • Dassault Mirage 4000
  • Eurocopter X3
  • The front part of a Sud Aviation Caravelle plane.

Tarmac/Exterior Exhibit

Outside the museum, you can see even more large aircraft and rockets:

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Museo del Aire y del Espacio para niños

  • List of aerospace museums
  • List of museums in Paris
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