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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1731.PDF
OCTOBER gra, 1947 4O5 Spitfires of I'Armee de I'Air in the repair shops of S.N.CA.N. at Les Mureaux, near Paris. •'-'•¥ The feur-seater Noralpha is basically the German Me 208. Produc- tion of a batch of two hundred is finishing. few weeks, and the first units of an order of fifty should then be coming through the Kellermann shops. A larger order is expected and after six months' production should be at the rate of fifteen a month. The Atar, after de- velopment for 5,000 lb s.t. (the initial rating will be 4,000 Ibj may become a strong com- petitor of the Hispano-built Nene . ..-. ; . , .,. and comparative trials of the two units will decide which shall be in- stalled in new types of fighters, bombers, attack machines, and, later, transports. No specification of the Atar was available, but one gathered that the weight is about 1,760 1b, the diameter 39m, and the r.p.m. for the 4,000 Ib rating, 7,000. The unit features a seven-stage com- pressor, an annular combustion chamber, nineteen burners and hollow turbine blades formed from Sirius sheet. As on the German turbo jets, there is an adjustable cone in the tail pipe. In conversation with Colonel Badre, who is in charge of all flight testing for S.N.E.C.M.A. (at Villaroche), we learned that a Marauder is being adapted by Marcel Dassault as a flying test bed for the Atar and that the Rateau A.65 will be similarly air-tested. Rights for the Rateau are held by S.N.E.C.M.A., who regard it as a roore promising unit than the Atar, though in med of longer develop- ment. The <•-•« with Rateau is, in General arrangement of the Nord 1500 (Nore- clair) deck-landing ta.pedo dive bomber. A later version will have a Nene in the fuselage. fact, much closer than this, for Rateau engineers form the nucleus of the S.N.E.C.M.A. turbine staff, now en- gaged on original designs for straight-jet and airscrew- turbine units. SJN.E.C.M.A. is the only nationalized organization for the production of aero-engines and embraces Renault and Regnier. Renault are continuing at Billancourt with their 12S unit and Regnier, at Le Mans, with the 4L, 4J, 4K and 4P series. Components for the 12S and 4P are made in annex shops of the Kellermann works, together with miscellaneous components, e.g., separators and compressors, some of which are on sub- contract. Our tour of the shops completed, we were given some figures relative to labour and equipment Of 2,090 workers, 530 are engaged on indirect production work and of 1,472 machine tools, 1,213 (f°r production work) average 8£ years in age, and 250 (for tooling) average 10 years. On leaving S.N.E.C.M.A. we drove again to the V : Maridor, where French ..-..' ., journalists waited to enter- tain us. They included M. Fevrier, of L'Aerophile, M. Roche d'Estrez, of L Air, and M. Cortier, Air Correspondent of Liberation. Time was all too short to talk shop with our French colleagues in view of an appointment at the Mureaux plant of the Soci6t6 Nationale de Constructions Aeronautiques du Nord (S.N.C.A.N.) in the Seine Valley, N.W. of Paris. Here, on the steps of the fine execu- tive block, waited M. Gateau, the Sales Manager, who wel- comed us in impeccable English. In company with M. Abrassard, Works Director, M. Vellutini, Production Manager, and M. Pean, in charge of the Flight Testing section, he told and showed us something of the history and activities of his organization. Just prior to the war the output from the Mureaux plant was thirty Potez 63s a month. A German bombing raid in June, 1940, caused no appreciable damage but major productive activity was • . ; • '•' suspended during the occupation, ' • .'. the Germans being content with Me 108 airframes and Me 109 and Henschel spares. Five Allied raids, however, did widespread damage, and on March 3rd, 1944, the R.A.F. scored 1,200 hits, eighty of •which were on the shops, the re- mainder being on the airfield. On the day of liberation the plant was 70 per cent destroyed. These facts are given not solely foi their historical interest but as an indication, in conjunction with the following notes on current activity, of the tremendous recon- structional effort put in hand when freedom came. In a month or two it was possible to resume Me 108 production for the French Air Force. Later a Renault 6Q was substituted for the Argus and the designation changed to Nord 1000. At present the monthly out- put is about twenty-five aircraft— principally Norecrins and Norai phas. The repair of Spitfires is also in hand, and parts are made for prototypes, two of which we were later privileged to see. The Noralpha, or Nord 1100, is
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