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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0703.PDF
FLIGHT, 24 May 1957 709 French Aviation Today Healthy Expansion Follows a Period of Consolidation Mystere Us and IVAs being assembled at the Dassault factory at Bordeaux-Merignac airfield. THE AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY FOR several years the French aircraft industry has been goingthrough a very interesting period of development. It has notyet reached its full capacity and it is difficult to foresee what its attainments will be in, say, 1960-1965. Whatever they may be,it has once again achieved international importance, through its organization, its products and its policy.For a long time it was accused of making aircraft which, though certainly interesting, did not fit into the sort of co-ordinated plannecessary for success. The present situation shows that this transi- tion period did at least allow designers freedom to developnumerous technical theories. Now there is a programme, scaled to the resources available and to a production capacity which isclearly planned despite its considerable variety. Altogether the airframe and engine manufacturing industrycovers a floor area of over 1,000,000 square metres and employs more than 60,000 people. The equipment manufacturers, who arenow producing at a high rate, employ a further 20,000 people. Government factories, research establishments and maintenancebases raise the total labour strength, including the above figures, to 95,900. The following figures show the relative importance ofthe various airframe companies: Sud Aviation, 21,950 employees, 544,000 sq m; S.N.C.A.N., 7,900 employees, 221,000 sq m;Dassault, 5,000 employees, 133,200 sq m; Breguet, 4,000 employees, 100,000 sq m; Morane Saulnier, 1,710 employees, 42,700 sq m.These are followed by Sipa, Air-Fouga, Hurel-Dubois, Max Holste, Leduc, Potez, Boisavia, Brochet and Paul Aubert. In all these concerns there is a strong trend towards the improve-ment of industrial installations by rational organization. Most of the factories look modern and show a constant preoccupation withemployees' working conditions. Considerable quantities of machine tools represent a valuable and important investment.The French aircraft industry has long been judged inferior to the great ones of other countries. With a few exceptions, it seemedthat the French companies were not capable of setting up produc- tion lines for large numbers of aircraft, or of achieving gooddelivery rates. This was due to two factors. Firstly, official orders from the armed forces and the large civil companies were smalland based on batches of a few aircraft ordered over a period of time, so that economic production rates were a risky venture forthe manufacturer. Secondly, the French companies, used to having one client only, the Government, did not pay sufficient attentionto the possibilities of exporting. Commercial departments were therefore organized on too small a scale and companies were hotprepared to invest capital of their own in aircraft and engines destined for export. During the last few years the situation has changed funda-mentally. One of the most important signs of this is the foundation of the Centre National d'Expansion. In addition, the new Govern-ment policy, being orientated towards longer-term programmes, gives production a much more stable foundation while at the sametime requiring a higher rate of delivery. Now, retrenchment in the industry has ceased and specialists and workpeople are beingcontinually recruited. From 1955 to 1956 airframe production tonnage more thandoubled, reaching the 1,537-tonne mark. This figure will prob- ably be doubled during 1957. Measures taken to increase produc-tion will probably result this year in a rate of output from the main aircraft companies of over 100 aircraft a month, not countinggliders and touring aircraft. This represents only a stage in the ever-increasing production of the industry, but it satisfies nationalrequirements and firm foreign orders so far placed. Without doubt, the industry had clearly given the lie to thosewho criticized its products on the score of quality. It therefore remained to be seen whether it was aware of the importance ofrespecting delivery dates and prices. These are now taken very seriously in France; and it is probably because of this that exportsare steadily mounting. Ouragans and Mysteres delivered to India, important contracts for Magisters and Noratlas signed with The remarkable Leduc 022-01 ramjet aircraft. Planned for speeds up to Mach 2, it carries a SNECMA Atar within the ram- jet chamber to provide shaft power and for take-off and cruising flight. The pilot sits in the nose-cone, which is jettisonable.
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