On the occasion of the 50th edition of the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget (SIAE), the French NGO Les Ailes du Petit Prince (The Wings of The Little Prince) invited 70 sick and handicapped children from medico-educational institutes in the Ile-de-France region to discover the world of aviation under privileged circumstances, thanks to the support of the air show’s organisers, the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation, the French Ministry of Defence, the French Air Force, the Museum of Air and Space in Le Bourget and industrial companies, among them Dassault Aviation, Air France and EADS.

Les Ailes du Petit Prince has organised for more than 15 years operations involving first flights in light aircraft, in the aim of allowing children deprived of freedom due to serious diseases or handicaps to discover our planet from the sky.

This unique event, organised within the framework of the international celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the first publication of the famous tale by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, in New York City in 1943, favoured exchanges between these children – for whom aviation represents an inaccessible universe – and the main actors of the aviation sector.

The French Air Force Chief of Staff, General Denis Mercier, expressed his support of this civic initiative during his meeting with Nicolas Delsalle-Mun, Secretary General of the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation, and Dorine Bourneton, member of the Foundation’s patronage committee and ambassador of the French Air Force’s Rafale Solo Display team.