Musée Delta is a small museum located close to Paris Orly airport. It was founded in 1988 by engineer Nicolas Roland Payen, considered one of the inventors of delta wing.

In the small indoor exhibit it is possible to see a full-scale mock up of Payen Pa.100, a race plane designed for Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe. The real plane never raced in the competition, at first due to an engine which did not comply with the competition rules, and then due to damage taken during test flight. During the German invasion, the Luftwaffe became interested in the plane, but Payen avoided with all means its transfer in Germany, until it was destroyed during an Allied bombing raid. The mock up was built by Roland Payen himself, whose photo is visible in front of the plane.

Payen’s drawing board, with some of his original drawings. The only Payen plane still existing to this day is the small delta wing jet Pa.49 Katy on display at Le Bourget’s Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace.

The second Concorde pre-production airplane is visible outdoors. This specific plane never flew operationally, and it only performed test flights. It wears the British Airways livery on this side, and the Air France one on the other side.

Cockpit. The droop nose system is still in working condition!

Flight engineer’s station:

Flight test instrumentation was removed, and replaced with a passenger cabin.

Several Dassault Mirage III complete the collection.
Mirage IIIE multirole version, the most widespread one:

Mirage IIIRD reconnaissance versione:

There is also a rare twin-seater Mirage IIIB with a fake inflight refueling probe to train the crews of the Mirage IV strategic bomber, but it was in a difficult-to-photograph position.

Finally, a gate guardian on display in nearby La Coulée Verte park (not part of the museum, and one of Orly’s spotting points): Dassault Étendard IVM carrier-based attack aircraft, restored by Amicale Jean-Baptiste Salis.