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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 0933.PDF
WORLD NEWS Dassault dies PARIS """ France's most celebrated aircraft designer and manu facturer, Marcel Dassault, who survived a Nazi concen tration camp and built some of the world's best-selling military aircraft—died on April 18 at the age of 94, writes Gilbert Sedbon. The grandeur of his funeral, which was to be held this Tuesday at the Church of Saint Louis des Invalides with full military honours and with Prime Minister Jacques Chirac paying homage on behalf of the nation, attests to the status that this frail and eccentric man acquired through his sprawling busi ness empire, and through poli tics by holding the Beauvais seat for the Gaullist party uninterrupted since 1958. He maintained strong central control over his aero space company, Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation, which gave birth to the Mirage family of fighters, the Mystere, the Super Etendard, the Atlantique 2, the Alpha Jet in conjunction with Dornier, and, most recently, the next-generation Rafale. A line of business jets including the Falcon 50,100, 200, and 900 and the Gardian provided a viable, although commercially less successful, counterbalance to the military line. The unveiling of the Rafale was probably the proudest moment of his life, though he died two months before its scheduled first flight in June. Born Marcel Bloch in 1892 of Jewish parents, he was interned by the Nazis in the Second World War for refusing to build aircraft for the Luftwaffe. He barely survived the eight months he spent in Buchenwald concen- tation camp before being lib erated in 1945. Ironically, he disliked flying. After being freed from Buchenwald he was flown back to France, his first and possibly only flight in an aircraft. One thing which appears to have been left unresolved at Dassault's death is who will succeed Benno-Claude Valliers, who, at 75, is still chairman of Dassault- FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 28 April 1986 Breguet. He will retire some time this year. Dassault has left his company at something of a crossroads. The independence that has brought Dassault- Breguet such commercial success in the past is now being challenged by a new need to collaborate inter nationally. France's insis tence that it led the European Fighter programme meant that it was ultimately squeezed out of the project altogether. Now Dassault- Breguet is urgently seeking alternative partners in Europe to produce the Rafale. Brazil offered cheap air defence boost BRASILIA ~ Brazil is looking closely at a Swiss-led offer of 50 F-104 Starfighters as a means of bolstering the sparse inter ceptor coverage of its massive airspace. SPICE, a Swiss Company, has organised a package of 50 ex-Netherlands and Belgian Air Force Starfighters. The aircraft would supplement the Brazilian Air Force's com paratively meagre air defence fleet of 15 Mirage IIIEs and 35 Northrop F-5E/Fs. If this offer is accepted, SABCA of Belgium and Fokker of the Netherlands would overhaul and upgrade the aircraft for a further 2,000hr of service. An upgrade of the avionics—to F-16 standard—is an option, and complete overhaul of the Star fighters' J79 engines would be carried out by CELMA of Brazil. The price of the 50 Star- fighters is understood to include a comprehensive package of spares and a simu lator, but is pitched at less than the cost of two-and-a- half F-5s. The Starfighter is cleared to use all versions of the Sidewinder missile. Rolls-Royce profits rise LONDON ~ Rolls-Royce was expected to show profits well up on last year's total of £26 million before tax, in annual results which were due as Flight went to press. A profit would put the firm in the black for the second year running, and in a good position for privatisation at the end of this year or early 1987. Rolls-Royce's strong sales performance in the first quar ter of this year is detailed in an article on page 44 of this issue. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL NEXT WEEK Graham Warwick de scribes the gestation of Beech's revolutionary Starship 1 business turbo prop, and provides a detailed technical descrip tion, accompanied by a cutaway drawing by Flight artist John Marsden. The United States Navy is moving towards the adop tion of a common ejection seat for a wide range of aircraft. Mike Gaines describes the development of the Navy Aircrew Common Ejection Seat by prime contractor Martin- Baker. At a time when pilots are concerned about safety and security in airlines world wide, Harry Hopkins reports from the Inter national Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations' AGM in London. Garrett-powered Tucano flies in Ireland The prototype Shorts Tucano is now flying from Shorts' Belfast plant after completing its first 6hr of test flying with the new Garrett 1,100 s.h.p. engine in Brazil. After being freighted to Ireland and reassembled, the Tucano was flown to the maximum 288kt sea-level speed required by the Royal Air Force.
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