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Further Reading

Dassault Aviation

Dassault Aviation is one of the major players in the global civil and military aviation industry. A reasonably sized private international group, with a presence in more than 70 countries across 5 continents, Dassault Aviation has been profitable ever since its creation in 1936. Structured to adapt its production to market cycles, Dassault Aviation encompasses a rich industrial network of high-tech companies in France, Europe, the US and many countries worldwide. Through its engineering design departments, production facilities, the skills of its employees and its product lines, Dassault Aviation offers its customers in-depth know-how, ranging from design to operations, based on strong entrepreneurial values.

Dassault Aviation designs and manufactures Mirage and Rafale jet fighters for militaries, and it leads in the business aircraft market with its Falcon jets. Dassault Aviation is 100 percent privately owned. The French government transferred its 45.7% share to Aerospatiale in 1998. Half of the company is privately owned by the Dassault family. Dassault Aviation has been on the stock market for 28 years, but only four percent is owned by the public.

Dassault was founded by Marcel-Ferdinand Bloch who was born in Alsace on January 22, 1892. As a schoolboy in Paris Bloch viewed his first airplane, built by the Wright Brothers, making a low pass over the city and then circling the Eiffel Tower. As a young man, still fascinated with aviation, Bloch attended the Ecole Supérieure de l'Aéronautique, France's first school for aeronautical engineering. He established a factory in a converted garage, and convinced his father-in-law to finance his small aeronautical business. During World War I Bloch developed a variable pitch propeller for the Spad fighter which gave French pilots the ability to outmaneuver their German adversaries. The Spad propeller made a great deal of money for Bloch who, after the war, went into housing construction.

Bloch began to manufacture airplanes again in the early 1930s when French military contracts were once more available. But the complexion of French politics changed abruptly in 1936 when the Socialist-Communist "Popular Front" government of Léon Blum came to power. On January 1, 1937 Bloch's aircraft factories were nationalized by the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques de Sud-Ouest (S.N.C.A.S.O.), one of six state-controlled aeronautic factories. Bloch was retained as a civil servant and invested the compensation he received for his company in a variety of North American securities. After the Popular Front fell from power, Bloch founded a new aircraft company which later produced the highly successful Bloch 152 fighter.

Since 1945, Dassault has delivered more than 7,000 civil and military aircraft to 73 countries, logging some 15 million hours in flight to date. This vast experience has allowed Dassault Aviation to build up considerable expertise in the design, development, production, sale and support of all types of aircraft. Dassault Aviation has staked out a solid reputation as industrial architect for complex airborne systems. Several key assets underpin this global success : expertise in emerging technologies ; an in-depth understanding of the customer's technical, operational and financial requirements ; and a comprehensive systems approach to meet cost, deadline and performance goals. Dassault Aviation is organized in multidisciplinary teams, a critical advantage in the management of complex programs. From design and development, to production and testing of airborne systems, Dassault Aviation deploys the full array of resources needed,covering both methods (concurrent engineering, risk management, early perception of finished products) and systems (numerical models, hybrid electronics integration center, anechoic chambers, dedicated flight test center control room, etc.).