Société Nationale des Constructions Aéronautiques du Midi

French fighter aircraft held eleven out of the twenty-two world airspeed records set between the wars, and seven were held by one aircraft--the Nieuport-Delage 29 fighter of 1921. The Gourdou-Leseurre 32 monoplane fighter of 1924 was the world's fastest operational fighter until 1928, when the Nieuport-Delage 62 overtook it. In 1934, the Dewoitine 371 held the honor; and in 1936, the Dewoitine 510 was the first operational fighter to reach 250 mph.7 The Dewoitine 501 of 1935 was the first fighter to mount a cannon that would fire through the propeller hub.

Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Midi (SNCAM) was a French aircraft manufacturer. The company was formed following the resolution of the 1936 general strike of French heavy industry, when the government of Léon Blum introduced an act to nationalize the French war industry by April 1, 1937. The former Dewoitine aircraft company was placed under government control, and renamed SNCAM. labor militants viewed Dewoitine as a man with whom they could bargain, not a reactionary. With the company failing in 1941, SNCAM was incorporated into SNCASE - Sud-est [through subsequent mergers, SNCAM's former holdings are now part of the EADS group].

On 9 August 1947, an Argentine jet prototype known as IA-27 Pulqui I flew for the first time--the fruit of an idea developed by a French-Argentine group headed by the engineer Emile Dewoitine and assisted by Argentine engineers Ignacio San Martin and Norberto Morcchio, who were working at the Fábrica Militar de Aviones (FMA) located in Córdoba. (The FMA is a manufacturing center belonging to the FAA.) Later on, on 27 June 1950, the IA-33 Pulqui II, a second Argentine jet prototype, made its maiden flight. This aircraft was the product of similar engineering teamwork, in this case led by the German engineer Kurt Tank. In 1979 French aviation pioneer and aircraft manufacturer Emile Dewoitine died at the age of 87.