We round up our takeaways from day one at Paris Air Show 2019, the world’s largest aerospace event.

We will be bringing you news and views from Le Bourget all week.

We arrived in style on a KC-390 from Embraer – in fact, it was the aircraft which will be the first to be delivered to a customer. It will be handed over to the Brazilian Air Force straight after the show.

Embraer has several prospective purchasers that will also be taking a closer look this week.

History in the making

History is being made at the show  with the appearance here on the Paris static park of the Israeli-built Eviation aircraft called Alice

It is the first all-electric, zero emissions regional commuter aircraft to be shown and its nine passengers will be able to cruise at 275 mph with a maximum range of 650 miles, with a half hour of recharging time for every hour in the air.

The much lower cost of electricity relative to aviation fuel will give it direct operating costs of  60% to 75% less than turboprop planes with comparable seating capacity

We’ll be bringing you more on this project through the week.

UAVs

UAVs are growing in number at the air shows, and Elbit Systems’ Hermes 45, a  small tactical unmanned aircraft system, made its first public appearance on the Paris static display.

The UAV combines extended range and duration with point launch and recovery, to and from land and maritime platforms for full ISTAR capabilities. Hermes 45 is operated by a two-person crew, launched from a short onboard platform rail, and is recovered by an automated spot landing system.

Airbus’ new addition

The big news on the first day of the show was the launch of the Airbus A321XLR, an addition to the neo family and one that will be capable of flying 200 passengers 4,700nm.

The first customer was Steven Udar Hazy’s Air Lease Corportation for 27 aircraft. He said the new XLR would go further than the 757s and make a 30% cost and fuel reduction.

Fuel efficiency is a big talking point here at Paris, and so too is reducing the huge cost of training. One French company, Elixir Aircraft, is showing its light trainer which it says will slash the cost of training thanks to its low fuel use.

Ansat

Russian Helicopters is impressing with the flexibility of its new Ansat helicopter which is making its debut at the Paris show. They even brought a troupe of Russian gymnasts who were bending over backwards to reinforce the point.

We’ll hear more about the Ansat during the week as it performs in the daily flying display

Milestones

The show will be about milestones too with 50-year celebrations from Airbus and Embraer as well as, of course, the Moon landings

Engine-maker CFM was also impressing with a milestone of its own – the equivalent of 115,000 years of service or 400,000 times to the moon and back.

FINN wins

For once we are talking about ourselves in a wrap video. Exciting news for all of us on the FINN team as we won the prestigious Aerospace Media Award for Innovation in aerospace journalism and publishing. A great honour for the whole team.

There  is undoubtedly going to be a lot to see from Le Bourget this week. We’ll be looking at how mergers and acquisitions are thinning down the supply chain as well as how artificial intelligence is changing the whole manufacturing and aftermarket activities.

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for our Day Two wrap programme or subscribe to receive it here.