Funny Flights: Caricatures of Flying Experiences

The Air Museum in Le Bourget (93) is hosting an exhibition on caricature from June 27, 2026, to January 3, 2027, in the Grande Galerie. Visitors are invited to discover the history of balloons and airplanes through the playful eyes of humorists and the satirical drawings and texts of caricaturists. Discover the pen strokes of Cham, Daumier, Reiser, Coco, Camille Besse, and Riss.

The temporary exhibition - Drôles de vols  Caricaturing Aerial Experiences - offers an original take on the history of airplanes and balloons. With humor at its heart, it showcases graphic art collections to highlight representations of aeronautics?including their artistic dimension?across various media such as posters, textiles, postcards, and objects...

The exhibition is organized into four chronological-thematic sections:

• Laughing at the novelty and the adventures of the first flights: satirical drawings on the theme of balloons, a new and sensational object that was put on display from the time of Louis XVI through the Second Empire
• The balloon, a recurring motif in a burgeoning satirical press: a subject of political criticism
• The nascent aviation industry highlighted through caricatures of airships and early aircraft, and the emergence of the "pilot" role during the Great War
• The aviation industry, a target of caricature: perceptions of aviation’s role in wartime and a subject for illustrators and cartoonists even today

The posters are complemented by loans from other institutions: the Fashion and Lace Museum (Brussels), La Contemporaine (Nanterre), the Tomi Ungerer Museum, and the International Center for Illustration (Strasbourg).

Dernière mise à jour le Tuesday 16th of June 2026