Spotting @ Hong Kong and Paris Le Bourget

Real World Aviation Spotting
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G’day IFC,

About a year ago, I took a trip from Brisbane to Paris via Hong Kong and was able to see some incredible aircraft that we don’t see down here in Brisbane. Recently due to the COVID-19 restrictions, I haven’t been able to plane spot as often as I would like and so, I have just been looking over all my old pictures from the trip and thought I would share some of my photos from the trip.

Airports

Hong Kong International was opened in July of 1998 to take over from the infamous Kai Tak Airport, which is now a seaport in Hong Kong. As many would know, Hong Kong International Airport is one of the worlds largest passenger hubs, seeing 71.5 million passengers in and out of its doors in 2019. The airport is also the world’s largest cargo airport, seeing 5,120,811 tons of cargo in 2018. The airport connects over 220 airports globally and has received over 80 awards.

Source: Facts and Figures, HKIA at a Glance - Hong Kong International Airport

Paris Le-Bourget was once used as the primary airport in Paris, but since the CDG opened, has been used as a GA airport, including business jet operations. Le Bourget is also home to the famous Paris Airshow and the Paris Air and Space Museum, which I visited on the trip.

Source: Paris–Le Bourget Airport - Wikipedia

Now time for the photos!

firestopper2
firestopper25184×3456 1.25 MB
firestopper3
firestopper35184×3456 1.2 MB

The aircraft above is the Canadair CL-215 which was used by the Frenc Securite Civile for water bombing purposes. It’s first flight was in 1969 and it’s last flight was in 1996 before getting replaced by the newer and more powerful CL-415.
concorde
concorde5184×3456 3.22 MB
concorde-2
concorde-25184×3456 2.24 MB
concorde-9978
concorde-99785184×3456 2.51 MB
concorde-9996
concorde-99965184×3456 3.47 MB

The iconic Concorde! This was definitely the highlight of the trip and the reason I went to the museum. The museum had two Concordes, one being owned by Air France (F-BTSD) and the other being a prototype, registration F-WTSS.
B-LRS-(1-of-1)
B-LRS-(1-of-1)5184×3456 3.82 MB

This aircraft is the Cathay Pacific A350 that took me home from Hong Kong to Brisbane. Registration is B-LRS.

That’s all for today, thanks for viewing!

17 Likes
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Wow, great photos @TimR! I’ve seen a concorde once in New York, it was amazing!

Nice A350 as well, how was that?

Hope you had a great trip

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Did you get to go inside of the Concorde? When I was inside I was surprised by how small the cabin was.
The A350 flight was great, it was very comfortable and modern compared to the 777 I took from Hong Kong to London. It was even better because the flight had barely anyone on it, so I ended up getting the whole row to myself and basically had a flatbed in economy!

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Yeah, I was surprised at how small it was, and while it was treated as First Class, the seats were only economy style!

That A350 flight sounds good, I haven’t been on it but I hope to sometime after everything goes back to normal. A flatbed sounds pretty good too!

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