Summary: | The “Plateau de Saclay”, near Versailles was the birthplace of aviation: four airfields were created between 1907 and 1912, and four others later. Taking up the essence of our work, Huit aérodromes sur un plateau (Eight airfields on a plateau), this article focuses particularly on describing, from a heritage point of view, what remains of these airfields on the ground. Only one airfield totally disappeared, that of Guyancourt, paradoxically the last one to have been closed, in 1989. The pattern on the ground of other two, the airfield Borel at Châteaufort and the airfield of Mérantais at Magny-les-Hameaux, is still well marked on the cadastre and visible on the ground. Three other platforms, REP (Robert Esnault-Pelterie), Farman and Toussus-Paris merge to form a fourth: Toussus-le-Noble. The former site of Buc is no longer detectable on the ground, but it remains a building, three sheds and two pylons of the monumental entrance that have just been restored. It is easy to retrace the former REP, Farman and Toussus-Paris in today’s Toussus-le-Noble. The sheds of the current South area are oriented parallel to the south-eastern limit of the Toussus-Paris airfield, which explains why the front of the sheds is far from straight and parallel to the runways as would be the case on an airfield designed on one step. Toussus-le-Noble has an exceptional collection of sheds, which we have analysed in detail: Farman shed (a hanging hangar of 1917); sheds with metal frame of 1932; Sarrade and Galtier sheds of 1946; more recent crossbar hangars. Unfortunately, in 2016, two semi-barrel shaped buildings with a x-shaped frame disappeared.
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