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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1690.PDF
454 FLIGHT, 0 October 1949 THE FRENCH AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY A Critical Analysis of Air frame and Engine Production Plans. PART I : Factors Leading to the Present Position IN order to appreciate the present situation in the Frenchindustry it is first necessary to review what has hap-pened since the Liberation. Even in the preceding decade the industry had been showing signs of a certain technical stagnation. In the engine field France, which had produced the excellent 180 h.p. Hispano and had been very successful with the 300 and 600 h.p. Hispano models, did not, in general, manage to pass the 800 h.p. mark with production units. Also, with regard to equipment and instruments, the lead taken by other countries was equally manifest. From the outset this situation caused all manner of incon- veniences. The aircraft designers, who had to adapt their projects to the available engines, did so by decreasing the weight of their airframes with a view to equalling the per- formances achieved abroad with more powerful engines. Such measures were carried to extremes, and serious conse- quences resulted. Also, they streamlined so thoroughly that the engines, enclosed in too-narrow cowlings, were insufficiently cooled (the Bloch 152 fighter was an ex- ample) . Similarly, weight was saved on the equipment, with the result that its strength was reduced, and, even when air- frames were good, performance and general efficiency were unsatisfactory. A considerable effort was, however, made during the war, and in May and June, 1940, delivery of large numbers of fighters and bombers—types introduced in 1938 and 1939—began. But the effort was too late, though this material did assist the Air Force, after its forced withdrawal to North Africa, to begin training. During the German occupation the number of vvork- Designed and built in a year : The Marcel Dassault Ouragon (Hispano-Suiza Nene) adopted by the French Air Force. r\URING the years since the war the aircraft industry of France has *^ come in for a good deal of criticism by observers in other countries, some of it almost amounting to derision. In this review, prepared by one who has been closely connected with French aircraft construction, an unbiased picture is presented of an industry which has had to contend with difficulties of a unique kind, and the author's observations suggest that many of the acknowledged shortcomings are the direct legacy of such obstacles rather than of the weaknesses inherent in a nationalized industry. As wilt be explained in the second part of the article, airframe and engine manufacture are now in process of complete reorganization— which, incidentally, includes the limitation of state-owned companies to three only. Prototypes seen at the Paris Show and the Orly Display give promise—as we pointed out at the time—of belated but real technical progress. people in the industry fell from 225,000 to 100,000, while the research departments were more or less broken up and only a few engineers continued their work clande- stinely. The factories occupied by the enemy either turned out older German and French types, such as the Junkers JU52 and LeC>45i, or later types, like the Heinkel He 174. Less than a week after the Allies entered Paris the Air Minister organized a meeting to discuss the conditions under which the industry might be revived. At the beginning of September, 1944, the first orders were placed. This haste, perfectly justifiable for meeting the exigencies of the moment, proved a burden on the country's future aero- nautical development. Let us recall the situation in the industry at that time. The number of workers had dropped to fewer than 40,000 ; moreover, per- sonnel who had for years been putting a brake on production had acquired working practices which it was ex- tremely difficult to discard. As regards facilities, at least half the buildings had to be replaced or repaired, and not more" than 500,000 square metres of floor area was available in the whole country. The machine-tool in- ventory, it is true, had suffered less and in value was not far behind that of May, 1940. But, above all, the industry was up against four years of technical isolation during which air- craft development abroad had pro- gressed by leaps and bounds. Tech- nicians had not been able to keep an S.O. 30P Bretagne, now in production. B 2
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