France: Aerophile Celebrates 30th Anniversary
Aerophile, manufacturer and operator of helium-filled tethered balloons based in Paris, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The company’s story commenced with the vision of the two founders, Jérôme Giacomoni and Matthieu Gobbi, to make ballooning accessible to a wide audience. On January 14, 1993, the young engineers established the Aerophile company. Since then, they have installed more than 120 balloons as well as 15 Aerobars in over 40 countries. Aerophile’s first tethered balloon was released into the sky in 1994 at the Parc du Château Chantilly. Since 1999, visitors to the “City of Love” have been able to climb into an Aerophile balloon in the heart of Paris and enjoy the view over the metropolis. Large tethered balloons from the French company can also be found at Disneyland Paris and the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando since 2005 and 2008 respectively.
In 2013, Aerophile the “Aerobar” flying bar to make it possible for guests to enjoy drinks at a lofty height. The first installation of this innovation was realized in Futuroscope. A year later, the two founders Giacomoni and Gobbi launched their first own theme park – Parc du Petit Prince, which was designed around the story of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – read also our article in EAP 3/2014.
In 2021, the company released the innovative particular matters capture system “Para-PM”, which won the tender of SOLIDEO (Société de livraison des ouvrages olympiques – engl.: Society for the Supply of Olympic Buildings), who have been looking for efficient solutions to clean the air in the 2024 Olympic Village. (eap)
