Le Bourget, France —Under dark gray and rainy skies, the 49th Paris Air Show got underway here Monday, featuring aggressive, under-the-cloud-deck flying demonstrations by the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, and Lockheed Martin F-16. Also flying were Lockheed’s C-130J and Alenia Aeronautica’s C-27 Spartan, a number of jet trainers and helicopters, the Airbus A380 in Korean Airlines livery, and the hybrid Eurocopter X-3, which has both five-bladed turboprops on wingtips and a rotor. Some 340,000 visitors, about half of them trade attendees, are expected at the biennial event northeast of the City of Light.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
