No, No, Not THAT Paris...

Instead, it's about the pioneering Paris Jet, first flown on July 29, 1954 -- fifty years ago. The noisy machine was conceived as a personal business jet, but found a niche as a fast liaison plane in the French military. Ironically, it was based on a trainer design that the services had rejected. The principal designer was Rene Gauthier.

Almost all the focus at the EADS Socata display -- the company is the successor to Morane-Saulnier, the company that made everything from Roland Garros's World War One fighter monoplane, to a copy of the Fieseler Storch, to the Paris Jet -- was on gleaming new TBM 700s, a top seller in the North American market. But the French firm did issue a press release, pointing with pride to this machine from their history.

A number of Paris Jets are on the US register today, and more fly worldwide. Not many early jets have made it to their diamond jubilee while still in productive service. Most of the survivors are "retired" French military liaison planes, which "retired" in the 1990s and have found a new life as personal transports. The Paris Jet has the advantage of civil certification: rather than a highly restricted experimental-exhibition certificate and Letter of Authority, the airplane has a normal airworthiness certificate and pilots require a normal type rating. 

FMI: http://www.machdiamonds.com/paris.html