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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2080.PDF
FLIGHT International, 16 July 1964 France's Aircraft Industry 101 SPACE, NATIONAL DEFENCE AND AN INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK STABILITY of design and production loading is probably themost difficult factor to achieve in any modern aircraftindustry, and the French industry is at present going through what the French would call a periode creuse. In the military field, the end of the long-drawn-out colonial wars, and the sharply reduced quantities involved in modern combat-aircraft production, are having a distinct effect on traditional military aircraft manufac- turers. International co-operative production and smaller national requirements are affecting those programmes which have gone ahead—though without the co-operation, at least two of the pro- grammes might not have reached the production stage at all. In the commercial field, the Caravelle programme is inevitably drawing to a close; and it is leaving a commensurately large vacuum behind it, because in its heyday it occupied some 50 per cent of the total industry capacity. The Nord 262 is now getting under way, but Sud are particularly hard-hit and their great assembly hall at St Martin du Touch is to be turned over to assembly of the Breguet Atlantic, pending arrival of Concorde production. On the other hand, helicopter production at Marignane is in full swing, with new projects and current production in a thoroughly healthy condition. SNECMA and Turbomeca, the national engine manufacturers, are lightly loaded by comparison with the busy decade 1953-1963. Missile work by MATRA and Nord is progressing well, with very healthy export orders to be filled by both. In the field of missiles and space projects France can claim to lead Europe. The major venture by the SEREB consortium is the strategic surface-to-surface missile known as the SSBS, and intended to fjrm the second generation of the French national deterrent, the fjrce de dissuasion. Space projects continue to develop, both in national projects and through participation in the European launcher programme. A more detailed account of French space activities appears on page 102. Certainly there is.no immediate prospect of airframe or engine orders to load the famous production lines at Bordeaux and Tou- louse and Bourges to anything like the extent they were loaded five years ago, when a concerted rationalization of development v-ork and a concerted export drive established an entirely new international standing for the French industry. In the reduced volume of orders, of course, France is no more unfortunate than most other nations—with the notable exception of West Germany, v here the F-104G programme caused an all-too-brief peak of Right, Dassault Mirage IV fuselage assembly. Above, SEREB's Diamant with Sud's Dragon and Btlier in front; and the SudjBAC Concord
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