The event was organised as part of Air France’s 90th anniversary celebrations, as well as marking the 70th anniversary of the Patrouille de France
French Flag carrier Air France has released images and a video of a recent air display which it undertook with the Patrouille de France aerobatics unit.
The event was organised as part of Air France’s 90th anniversary celebrations, as well as marking the 70th anniversary of the Patrouille de France.
In a press statement the national airline says that the flight involved a total of 11 aircraft, including an Air France A350-900, named ‘Les Sables-d’Olonne’, which was being delivered from Airbus’ assembly site in Toulouse to Paris Charles De Gaulle.
The display flight, dubbed ‘Athos A350’, was filmed at over 2,500 metres above the Camargue by aerial footage specialist Eric Magnan of Airborne Films, using a French TBM 700 Daher camera-mounted aircraft “incorporating a leading-edge gyro-stabilised camera system”.
The video was also set to music by composer Augustin Saldjian, performed by the Prague philharmonic orchestra, adds the airline. Air France has been celebrating its 90th anniversary as part of which a number of events and intiatives have been organised. These include an exhibition at the Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann of “iconic dresses embodying the company’s legendary history”.
It also reassigned its flights AF015, from New York JFK to Paris CDG and AF022 from CDG to JFK as AF001 and AF002 respectively.
The iconic flight numbers were previously assigned to Concorde services until the supersonic aircraft was retired in 2003.
“A month of preparation and thorough cooperation was required to plan this 45-minute flight down to the smallest detail, guaranteeing the highest level of safety. This groundwork prepared jointly by the Patrouille de France team, the Air France crew and the pilot of the camera-mounted aircraft was carried out in line with the highest standards,” says Eric Prévot, event manager and Athos A350 mission leader.
In 2019, British Airways had performed a fly-past with the Red Arrows as part of the carrier’s centenary celebrations, using one of its BOAC retro-liveried aircraft.
