Section V – History, literature and arts of air and space

The activities of section V focus on three areas: history, literature and arts. Its primary objective is to contribute to the defence of the French language in the aerospace field, which is tainted by a chaotic, lazy transposition of English terms. It is in this spirit that a “Franglais-French lexicon of current aeronautical terms and collection of usual barbarisms”was drawn up in 2009. An extended edition was published in October 2017. In the same vein, certain members of section V systematically proofread all AAE publications, including its bimonthly newsletter and the Dossiers and Opinions series, proposing corrections where necessary.

In 2005, section V elaborated and published the biographical dictionary “Les Français du Ciel, dictionnaire historique”, published by Cherche Midi editions. This book traces the history of the Conquest of the skies through its French protagonists: precursors, pioneers, leaders of industry, war aces, air route creators, test pilots, astronauts, hands-on players or decision-makers. From the outset, women played an important role in this male profession, justifying their fame. In addition to a biographical section, a thematic section describes and recounts the history of the institutions and companies where the talent of air and space players, from the origins to the present day, could be expressed. An update is in preparation, to be published on the AAE website, which will take into account, in particular, the significant structural changes that have taken place in the aerospace industry and French armed forces since the 1st edition of the book.

Section V is also responsible for making AAE’s voice heard during conferences and seminars, etc., which focus on its areas of competence. The same can be said in the art field regarding paintings or sculptures.

The members and correspondents of the section, by the nature of their activities as historians or journalists, regularly publish books and articles and are present in the media.