New Wings for France

At an aircraft plant in southern France last week, production was being stepped up on a trim, twin-jet plane with a graceful butterfly tail. The plane was France's Magister, a light, two-place trainer (made by Etablissements Fouga) that can hit 450 m.p.h., perform most of the maneuvers of heavier, more expensive combat cratt. The French air force has ordered 100 of the new Magisters; last week the hard-to-please NATO training committee was also recommending the plane to West Germany and other NATO nations as the standard basic trainer for fledgling jet pilots.

Businessman's Jet. The Magister is one of the best evidences of the big strides that the French aircraft industry has made in its comeback from the wreckage of World War II. At first, in 1945, French planemakers had taken off on a false course, designed dozens of fighters, bombers and heavy transports that could not be produced in their ruined factories. But in recent years the industry gradually got its bearings. Instead of trying to compete with the U.S. and Britain all along the line, France's planemakers are now concentrating on smaller projects where French inventive genius is not hampered by the lack of French production facilities.

Besides Fouga, most of France's 24 other airframe builders and eight engine firms are working on new families of easily produced light jet planes and small engines, are also driving ahead on radical designs for pure research instead of mass production.

In the light-plane field World War I Planemaker Morane-Saulnier has built a sleek, four-place light jet called the Paris which can buzz along at 400 m.p.h. serve either as a military liaison plane or a highspeed executive transport. Though only one prototype has been built, U.S. Light-Plane-Maker Beechcraft, no novice in the field, is so impressed with the Paris that it is showing it around the U.S., will build for flying businessmen if there are enough orders. On its American debut the Morane-Saulnier craft flew Ambassador to the U.S. Maurice de Murville from Washington to New York in 35 minutes, setting a civil aviation record In pure research, France's large Societe Nationale de Constructions Aeronautiques du Sud-Ouest (S.N.C.A.S.O.) is flying its Trident, a jet-and-rocket-powered interceptor, at supersonic speeds, while the tiny (400 workers) Leduc Co. has built an even more radical fighter with a needlelike plastic cockpit and a 143,000-lb.-thrust (at 621 m.p.h.) ramjet engine. Carried aloft on the back of a mother ship and released at a high speed, the Leduc ramjet has already passed Mach 1 in a climb, is expected to hit Mach 2 (1,520 m.p.h. at sea level).

The biggest strides of all have been in a field thus far neglected by both the U S and Britain: small jet engines. French engine builders from the government's big SNECMA to Veteran (World War I) Hispano-Suiza, have new light jets flying or on the test stands. The leader so far is Turbomeca, which has nine engines in production from 300 to nearly 900 Ibs. static thrust. For the twin-jet Magister and the Paris, Turbomeca has developed a 298-lb. jet with 880 lbs. of static thrust a power-to-weight ratio of nearly three to one v. two to one in most big military engines. The new engine is so light and economical that Continental Motors will build it under license in the U.S. to power Cessna's new T-37 light jet trainer, now in production for the U.S. Air Force. Furthermore, the Turbomeca engines are so adaptable that France is experimenting with them on lightweight helicopters to get bigger loads, higher speeds and altitudes.

The Mystere. French planemakers have not given up on big planes. Designer and Planemaker Marcel Dassault has turned out 350 Ouragan fighters, France's first swept-wing jets, is now working on a 200-plane order for supersonic super Mysteres.

S.N.C.A.S.O. is building 140 Vautour fighter bombers a 720-m.p.h. jet that can carry a tactical Abomb. S.N.C A S O is test-flying a twin-jet Caravelle transport that can carry up to 91 passengers on medium-length (up to 2,300 miles) air routes at a speedy 455 m.p.h. But so far foreign airlines have shown little interest in buying French-made transports. Even Air France uses American-made Super-Constellations.

Moreover, with only 58,000 workers (v. 210,000 for Britain, 610,000 for the U.S.) in the industry, France cannot compete with the giants in big-plane production, even with a government subsidy of $400 million. Military orders are still only enough to keep the industry working at 30% (396 planes in 1954) of capacity. Nevertheless, with the success of their Fouga Magister and light Turbomeca engines, French planemakers see the possibility of carving a modest niche in the world's air markets.

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