| Summary: | In 1919, the ‘Aeronautical Collections’ were created with the ambition of preserving old aeroplanes and popularising the techniques of aerial navigation. Up to 1994, this museum was attached to different technical and scientific departments within the administration and professional skilled workers were entrusted with the task of maintaining and restoring the aircraft presented in the collection. The techniques involved were those habitually used in aircraft maintenance or construction. But these techniques, which allowed for the preservation and transmission of different skills associated with aeronautical construction, could sometimes result in the loss of information about the material history of the objects restored. In 2007, the Museum redefined its scientific and cultural objectives. This evolution kept the museum’s technical vocation but gave more attention to the historical and sociological aspects of the collections. It has had a direct impact on the objectives of restoration operations which are now defined according to the different values that the objects concerned may vehicle, their specific history and the context of how they will be displayed in the museum. This meant recruiting qualified conservators-restorers who began to intervene as advisors, from 2011, in the museum’s restoration workshops. The complementarity of skills and the cooperation between the staff in this workshop who possess the aeronautical skills and the conservators-restorers is a necessary condition to carry out the various restoration operations now required. Attitudes to the restoration of old aircraft sometimes contradict each other and it is important here to avoid direct confrontation or dogmatic positions. In this context one has only to think of the differences that may emerge when it comes to restoring an aero-motor to running order or putting a historic aeroplane back into flying condition.
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