PARIS: The deafening roar of the biggest airliners and most advanced combat jets will split the skies north of Paris Monday when the world's flagship air show returns to the French capital. Alternating year-by-year with Britain's Farnborough, the Le Bourget aviation show is the industry's showpiece event and this year is expected to mark a return to massive multi-billion-euro orders for new aircraft. On an industrial level, the event will be dominated by the dueling giants of commercial aviation, US behemoth Boeing and European champion Airbus, but the scientific star of the show will be a unique solar-powered plane. As big as an airliner with its 63- meter wingspan but as light, at 1,600 kilos, as a family car, the Solar Impulse will demonstrate the future of aviation with daily flights, weather permitting, around the site. Its electric propellers are powered only by solar panels and the team hopes that they can fly the craft.
