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La Ferte Alais


Rowan Broadbent

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At the tail end of our French hols in July this year Madame and I visited the Jean Salis Collection at La Ferte Alais, south of Paris.

This is a wonderful place to visit - you should really phone in advance but we just turned up at lunchtime as it happens, so the kind lady in the hangar said we could come back after her repas, so we repaired to the very pleasant little eatery overlooking the airfield and after a very pleasant bavette steak and a couple of glasses of red I was allowed to enter this aeronautical aladin's cave.

What a Joy! - no barriers, you simply wander around the aircraft parked in the hangars. They have a lot of machinery from all periods there, but I am only putting up the WWI shots here - I got some others including some detail shots of their Storch - so if anyone wants them to assist with Tamiya's kit, let me know!

It probably is obvious that these are detail shots in a walkroud style rather than arty-farty ones!

So Here we are:

A pre-war Morane Saulinier - as copied by Pfalz as the EI

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The WWI corner

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Spad XIII - useful for the new Eduard kit! Note the authentic blue finish to the metalwork and the almost completely flat finish to the wings, not a rib in sight and hardly able to see the rib tapes!

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The SE5a

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The Morane Saulnier AI

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The Fokker DVII (complete with original Merc DIII BMW IIIa engine)

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Looks like Aeromaster Lozenge was used!

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sadly the cockpit was covered

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Hmmm...seems that I can only post so many photos in one post - I'll post the other few as an extension...

If you haven't visited their site its a good 'un :

http://memorial.flight.free.fr/

I Didn't get into the workshops, where they are restoring the LVG CVI and Sopwith Strutter - actually I didn't ask if I could as we had to get back through the Tunnel and had run out of time - I think next time I'll email and see if I can get an appointment to view.....

Edited by Rowan Broadbent
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Lovely photos Rowan, I did the same this year. We called in and Clare and I were just given the run of the wonderful place. At least you were able to take photos. I had dropped our only camera (Clares) off the deck of the boat into the Charente at Cognac, so all I got were a few scrappy shots using a phone camera.

Regards

John

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