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The roar returned. After nearly 90 years on the ground, a slender, racing-built silhouette lifted into the blue above La Ferté-Alais and reminded a new generation what speed used to look like.
The Rafale Returns to Show Its Colors
It is the very Caudron Rafale C.460 that tore through the record books in 1934, rebuilt and certified by Renault as part of The Originals Renault – La Collection. Once owned and flown by Hélène Boucher, the aircraft once set the airspeed record for light planes over a three kilometre course at 505.85 km/h, which is 314.32 mph. That same machine has now completed ground and flight testing and performed a public sortie at Le Temps des Hélices.
Work began in July 2024. Specialists at Aéro Restauration Service in Dijon teamed with pilot-restorer Bruno Ducreux to strip the airframe down to its bones, inspect and reinforce the structure, overhaul the supercharged Renault six-cylinder inverted air-cooled engine, and validate the two-position variable-pitch propeller. The process was meticulous. Every rivet mattered. Every run-up on the tarmac was treated like a rehearsal for history.
Restoration is not about nostalgia alone. It is a technical conversation across decades, a dialogue between old metallurgy and modern standards. The crew ran repeated ground checks and flight profiles until the airplane performed like the legend it is.
More Than a Flying Exhibit
Renault plans to parade the Rafale at other air shows before it settles into a permanent home. From 2027 the plane will join Les Collections, a dedicated museum in Flins outside Paris where hundreds of historically important Renault vehicles and archival materials will be displayed. Expect to see the Caudron alongside oddities and icons: a 1926 single-seater record car, the eccentric 1934 Nervasport des Records, the 1956 Riffard Tank prototype, and the Étoile Filante turbine car.
The Flins location is fitting. Since 1952 the factory there has produced some 18 million vehicles, including household names such as the 5, Clio, and Zoe. The museum will present cars on giant racks, forming walls of automotive history, and will house roughly 2.4 kilometres of archival documents, posters, drawings, and books.
Renault no longer builds aircraft. Yet every so often the company dips into its aeronautical past to tell a brand story. The Rafale name is one example. Today it also graces a modern D-segment SUV coupe, offered with hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains, producing either around 200 or 300 horsepower and capable of roughly 105 km of electric range, which is 65 miles. Renault links past and present in color palettes and in spirit.
What the restored C.460 delivers is a reminder: engineering ambition can leave traces that outlast fashion. A racer that once chased records now chases an audience, and it does so with the quiet confidence of a project that honors craftsmanship as much as it celebrates spectacle.
We will track the Rafale's upcoming appearances and report any new dates for its air show schedule. For now, if you missed the flight at La Ferté-Alais, plan to see the plane in the metal when Les Collections opens its doors.
Source: autoevolution
Comments
v8rider
Stunning machine, but serious question — how much is original metal vs replaced? looks gorgeous, curious if engine is period correct or modernized??
mechbyte
Wow the roar back in the sky after 90 years? chills. Every rivet story makes me wanna see it up close, hope they keep flying it, please more dates!
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