Industry Aerospace, Defense | Founded 1939 | |
Key people André CurvaleHenri DeplanteClaude de Cambronne. Products Civil aircraftMilitary aircraft | ||
Bordeaux Aéronautique (BA) is a French aeronautic company founded during the German occupation of France in World War II, on 17 March 1939, by Marcel Bloch, André Curvale, Henri Deplante and Claude de Cambronne.
History
Facing plane production increase, the SAAMB buy in September 1939, in Talence, near Bordeaux, industrial buildings in a workshop next to the Château de Brama (also called Castle of Edward, the Black Prince) which is retroceded to Bordeaux-Aéronautique. France produces at that time the most important rearmament.
The company was supposed to produce for the Vichy French Air Force, front fuselages of Bloch MB.175 and Bloch MB.1020 aircraft, but production stopped at the end of 1940, when Marcel Bloch is arrested on 6 October 1940. During his detention at Thiers, theCommissariat général aux questions juives sends to the regional directions of the economic epuration service of Marseilles and Limoges the order to investigate the Bloch companies.
The Comité d'organisation de l'aéronautique directed by Joseph Roos achieves to slow down all processes of Aryanisation, but in 1942, the German authorities of the Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich (MBF) names a short-term administrator of the Bloch company in Saint-Cloud, Jean de Broë. On 20 December 1940, Marcel Bloch delegates authority to Henri Carol.
Vichy French Air Force uses Bloch MB.150 family fighter aircraft and Bloch MB.170 family bomber aircraft, equipping all fighter and bomber units in the unoccupied zone under the Franco-German Agreements. Also being limited to three groups stationed in North Africa. In November, 173 MB.152/155 are gathered at Guyancourt, Orange-Caritat and Châteauroux, for use in training fighter pilots for the Luftwaffe.
After leaving Pau on 20 August 1944, the Germans leave Bordeaux on 28 August. SNCASO comes back to Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport to work for the Allies and after his return from Buchenwald, in April 1945, Marcel Dassault (née Bloch) calls back the group of Talence to relaunch his aircraft company. In June 1945 Marcel Dassault reorganizes the BA 30 project and in July 1946, two prototypes are ordered: the Sud-Ouest Bretagne and the Dassault MD 315 Flamant. In 1947, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, former general of the French Résistance close to the aircraft manufacturer, becomes Mayor (Maire) of Bordeaux.