Six years after the Wright brothers achieved sustained flight, the first trade show devoted to aerial locomotion took place in Paris. Shown here, the 1909 First International Exhibition of Air Navigation attracted nearly 100,000 visitors in its first four days. Onlookers turned out to see uplifting products from 380 exhibitors, including French-built planes that had recently set distance and speed records, and a menagerie of hot-air balloons that drew breathless comparisons to gilded bird cages. Since then, the event (now known as the Paris Air Show) has soared, debuting such future stars of the sky as the Boeing 747.