Originally known as Villeneuve-Orly Airport, the facility was opened in the southern suburbs of Paris in 1932 as a secondary airport to Le Bourget. Before this two huge airship hangars had been built there by the engineer Eugène Freyssinet from 1923 on. As a result of the Battle of France in 1940, Orly Airport was used by the occupying German Luftwaffe as a combat airfield, stationing various fighter and bomber units at the airport throughout the occupation. Consequently, Orly was repeatedly attacked by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), destroying much of its infrastructure, and leaving its runways with numerous bomb craters to limit its usefulness to the Germans. After the Battle of Normandy and the retreat of German forces from the Paris area in August 1944, Orly was partially repaired by USAAF combat engineers and was used by Ninth Air Force as tactical airfield A-47. The 50th Fighter Group flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft from the airport until September, then liaison squadrons used the airfield until October 1945. The USAAF diagram from March 1947 shows the 6,140-foot (1,870 m) 27/207 (degrees magnetic) runway (later 03R) with 5,170-foot (1,580 m) 81/261 runway (later 08L) crossing it at its north end. The November 1953 Aeradio diagram shows four concrete runways, all 197 feet (60 m) wide: 03L 7,874 ft (2,400 m), 03R 6,069 ft (1,850 m), 08L 5,118 ft (1,560 m) and 08R 6,627 ft (2,020 m). The American United States Army Air Forces 1408th Army Air Force Base Unit was the primary operator at Orly Field until March 1947 when control was returned to the French Government. (The United States Air Force leased a small portion of the Airport to support Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) at Rocquencourt). The Americans left in 1967 as a result of France's withdrawal from NATO's integrated military command, and all non-French NATO forces were asked to leave France. In May 1958, Pan Am Douglas DC-7Cs flew to Los Angeles in 21 hours and 56 minutes; Trans World Airlines, Air France and Pan Am flew nonstop to New York in 14 h 10–15 min. Air France flew to Tokyo in 31 h 5 min via Anchorage or 44 h 45 min on a seven-stop Lockheed Constellation (1049G model) via India. Air France's ten flights a day to London were almost all Vickers Viscounts; the only other London flight was Alitalia's daily Douglas DC-6B (BEA was at Le Bourget). A development project voted in 2012 planned to merge the airport's south and west terminals with the construction of an 80,000-square-metre (860,000 sq ft) building to create one great terminal. On 14 April 2016, the Groupe ADP rolled out the Connect 2020 corporate strategy and the commercial brand Paris Aéroport was applied to all Parisian airports, including the Orly airport. On 7 November 2015, the failure of a two-decade-old Windows 3.1 system which was responsible for communicating visual range information in foggy weather to pilots caused a temporary cease of operations. Whether the failure was hardware- or software-based is not specified, though the highlighting of the operating system suggests a software failure. As part of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on aviation, the airport was closed to all commercial traffic from 1 April 2020 to 25 June 2020. During this period, commercial traffic and flights were relocated to Charles de Gaulle Airport, while Orly was still used for State flights, emergency diversions, and medical evacuations. Paris Aéroport reported in 2023 that a tree-planting project in the vicinity of the airport, along the route of the route nationale 7, was being undertaken. The scheme involved planting 900 tree species and 14,000 forest seedlings. Paris Aéroport anticipates capturing 329 tonnes of carbon per year through the planting. In October 2023, it was announced that Air France will largely cease using Orly Airport by summer 2026, with only one public service obligation flight to Corsica to remain.