Everyone rolls their eyes when you tell them it’s your first time attending the Paris Air Show. At a press dinner last night hosted by Lockheed Martin, a succession of executives smiled when I said it was my first air show and said, “prepared to be overwhelmed.” The numbers are staggering: Almost 2,000 exhibitors, 400,000 visitors expected over the course of the next week. The scale is vast: walking at a reasonable clip from one end of the show to the other takes the better part of an hour. The variety of the flying machines is extraordinary, from the Airbus A380 double-decker jumbo jet, to unmanned aircraft that are barely larger than the model planes one flew as a child. And it’s striking just how many unmanned aircraft are on display here, from small, tactical UAVs that can be launched by hand, to large, stealthy UCAVs–unmanned combat aerial vehicles. The snapshot below is the Dassault UCAV technology demonstrator, and above right you can see the small Skylark UAV, produced by the Israeli firm Elbit. The Israelis in particular have a wide array of UAVs on display at the show, including the massive Heron, which is making its debut today (click here for a hi-res image). More to follow soon.
