1ère Exposition Internationale de Locomotion Aérienne (1909) First Paris Air Show (digital)

Official Report on the First International Air Locomotion Exhibition

Organised by the Association des Industriels de la Locomotion Aérienne

at the Grand Palais in October 1909

The first Paris Air Show! A unique document...
When Robert Esnault-Pelterie, one day in the early spring of 1909, asked the French government to take an interest in his project to organise the First International Exhibition of Air locomotion in Paris, he was listened to with sympathy mixed with pity. He seemed terribly young! "Where will you find the money? How will you persuade the government to grant you the Grand Palais? Will you have enough to fill it? Why not remain modestly an annex to the Motor Show? etc., etc."
Six months passed and the exhibition opened at the end of September in Paris. Its initial success was immediately transformed into a triumph.
Was Pelterie unable to find capital? An elite group of industrialists provided him with more than he needed, not among philanthropists but among industrialists. And these advances were more than covered by the proceeds of the Exhibition.
The President of the Republic came to visit, as did all the ministers, including those of War, the Navy and Foreign Affairs. The Paris City Council and the General Council of the Seine gave it an equally warm welcome.
The Blériots, the Demoiselle de Santos Dumont, Latham's monoplane, the Wrights, the Voisins and the Farmans held no secrets for anyone; as for the engines, everyone talked about them as if they were discussing the chances of the favourite and his rivals in a race.
The exhibition featured four hundred exhibitors, thirty different aeroplanes and airships, and countless engines and propellers.
The exhibition had to be divided into ten groups, including free balloons, airships, military aerostation, pods, ropes, equipment, silk and rubber fabrics, varnishes for fabrics, and the preparation and preservation of gases used in aerostation. The group of heavier-than-air aircraft included aircraft, parachutes and kites. The group of engines and propulsion systems abounded in engines of all ages and systems, propulsion systems, mechanical components and spare parts earmarked for airships and aeroplanes.
Group IV, which was very important and well organised, was devoted to science. Mr Périer had organised a section of great interest, flight (gliding birds); meteorology, not to mention a section on physiology and sections reserved for precision instruments
, photography, cinematography, projectors, balloon lighting, signals, telegraphy and telephony by balloon, plans and scale models.
The arts had been given their share, of course, with objects of art, paintings and sculptures related to aeronautics. A retrospective section, thanks to the goal and dedication of Mr Tissandier, was one of the attractions, the highlight of this Exhibition of the Future.
Raw materials, machine tools, metals and wood, in particular, which must be selected with the utmost care.
Transport and shelters include, in group VII, everything related to special transport and packaging equipment, tents, hangars for balloons and aeroplanes.
Cartography, which aeronautics is set to revolutionise, has not been forgotten, nor has bibliography, with thousands of books, publications and newspapers in every country.
Finally, the aviation trade was born, well established and thriving, and group IX was reserved for sales and rentals, which was no small matter, since "we know a young man whose father gave him an aeroplane as a reward for passing his baccalaureate. 
We have not forgotten special clothing, food, preserves, and toys! What child does not have an aeroplane? And the banners, flags, the cheerfulness of the air, all the signalling devices for semaphores, travel items, motorboats, not to mention the encouragement societies, the Aero Club, the Air League, and who knows what else?
Who would have thought that 115 years later, this exhibition would still be the most important air show in the world?
132 pages in French – PDF download