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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0821.PDF
I FLIGHT, 829 * 17 June 1960 A "Flight" Survey of Policy, Organization, Capacity and Products FRANCE'S AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY IMMEDIATELY after World War II, French Governmentpolicy for the aircraft industry was aimed at producing newnational designs as soon as possible. The result was an astonishing variety of prototypes which met with varying success.Although it severely strained the available resources, particularly financial, the policy did have a valuable effect in resuscitating boththe factories and the design teams. Technicians were able to make up the time lost during the war and even to advance intosupersonic and rocket-powered flight well ahead of other European countries. Some traces of the over-enthusiasm of those early post-waryears still remain. Between 1948 and 1953 excessive diversifica- tion brought the industry to a low ebb. Subsequent rationaliza-tion re-established some order, but it is nevertheless worth noting that the Mirage III, for example, was the direct result of the lightfighter design competition of 1952 which had produced the Trident, Durandal, Gerfaut and Mirage I prototypes. The newknowledge of aerodynamics, propulsion and equipment which these ventures provided led to the completely equipped MirageIII weapon system as we know it today and, later, to the Mirage IV. Those early troubles taught the leaders of the industry thatprosperity lay in co-ordinating, if not actually in combining their activities. Some amalgamation has certainly taken place, if notby actual fusion of companies, then by close technical agreements. SNCASE and SNCASO merged to form a strong design teamand better distribution of work in their various factories; SNCAC (Aero-Centre) and SFECMAS joined SNCAN, later called Nord-Aviation. A whole network of agreements and sub-contract arrangements have been formed, particularly those for productionof the Caravelle, the Broussard and Super-Broussard. Design consortia have also been formed, such as that between Sud andDassault for a supersonic medium-range transport and the SEREB group for ballistic missile design which incorporatesrepresentatives of all the existing missile concerns. In making such arrangements, relatively little account is takenof whether the companies concerned are nationalized or privately owned, although state-owned companies naturally tend to receivefavoured treatment when orders are placed. It is significant that most of the sub-contracts have been placed under governmentdirection, according to company's capacity and work in hand, so that design and production have been equitably divided. Thisseems to be a form of indirect nationalization which has worked out reasonably well.More recently, this co-operation in production and design has spread beyond France's own frontiers. Besides considerable Fiatparticipation in the Caravelle programme and the technical agree- ment between Breguet and Fokker, two notable examples are theTransall and Atlantic projects in which respectively Nord and Breguet are design leaders and which bring together French,German, Dutch and Belgian companies. Britain has not chosen to take advantage of such international opportunities, with theexception that both the aircraft named above are to be powered by Rolls-Royce engines. The main force of financial support for the aircraft industry is the Government budget which provides between 2 and 2.5 mil-lion new francs each year. In the near future the "aircraft pro- gramme law" is to be passed to lay down virtually a five-yearplan for the industry. It is too early to know the exact terms of this law (it is known as the "loi-programme") but it will probablydefine the formation of a nuclear deterrent force—initially nuclear projectiles and manned aircraft, later missiles—strike and ground-support aircraft for the overseas territories and the continuation of the Caravelle programme. It should be noted that this close official direction of the activi-ties of the industry has not prevented the success of some private projects. The Dassault Ouragan is one example and the MirageIII another, because only the wing of this aircraft was originaSy ordered. The Communaute and Spirale were equally privateventures. SFERMA is successfully working privately to fit small turboprops in various aircraft and the Marbore, Artouste,Palouste, Bastan and Astazou turbines were entirely Turbomeca private ventures which were subsequently recognized by produc-tion or pre-production orders. Finally, exports to countries all over the world have provided profits which have financed acertain number of private ventures. Research Resources The French Government is in effect still the main customer ofthe aircraft industry, even where civil aircraft are concerned, and it has considerable resources for research and testing. Bothnationalized and private companies may undertake testing on behalf of the Government, but any research project originated bya company must ultimately be evaluated by the Government. The work which in this country is undertaken by the Ministry ofAviation (formerly Ministry of Supply) is delegated to a French Government department and not to a ministry as such. Despite close supervision and official testing, any company isfree to undertake any research which it considers necessary. For instance, SNECMA has considerable physics, electronics andnuclear laboratories, Dassault has an electronics division and Sud has considerable interests in missile guidance and propulsion. Government establishments consist mainly of test centresintended for the evaluation of industry products, but in carrying out such evaluations they provide and maintain test equipmentwhich in its turn is useful to the industry. Indeed, much of the special instrumentation which has been developed by the Govern-ment services has subsequently been put into commercial produc- tion and some of it has been exported all over the world. With theinstruments have gone French techniques and procedures, them- selves invisible exports. Beside the company research departments, is the well-equippedofficial pure research establishment, ONERA (Office National d'Etudes et Recherches Aeronautiques). Theoretical studies arecarried, perhaps to the prototype stage, by ONERA and then At the head of this page are a Sud Caravelle and Alouette II, representing two of the French industry's most successful projects and accounting for more than 50 per cent of its activity
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