Le Bourget

Understand

The airport started commercial operations in 1919 and was Paris's only airport until the construction of Orly in 1932. Le Bourget, London's Croydon (now demolished) and Berlin's Tempelhof (now a municipal park) were "the trio of Classic European airports" whose design influenced all others that came later. On May 8, 1927, the White Bird took off from Le Bourget and its pilots, Charles Nungesser and François Coli, hoped to reach New York City without stopovers. Unfortunately the plane disappeared without a trace. It was finally Charles Lindbergh who made the first air crossing of the North Atlantic between New York and Paris on May 21, 1927. He was welcomed as the "victor" of the North Atlantic, posing on his Spirit of St. Louis. An enormous crowd also welcomed Edouard Daladier on September 29, 1938, after the signing of the Munich Agreement signed between Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy represented respectively by Adolf Hitler, Edouard Daladier, Neville Chamberlain and Benito Mussolini (who had acted as intermediary).