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The Dassault Saga: One Hundred Years of French Aviation
2017 · Documentary · History
Marcel Dassault (born Marcel Ferdinand Bloch; 23 January 1892 – 17 April 1986) was a French engineer and industrialist who spent his career in aircraft manufacturing.
Born on 23 January 1892 in Paris, he was the youngest of the four children of Adolphe Bloch, a doctor, and his wife Noémie Allatini. His parents were Jewish.
He was educated at Lycée Condorcet in Paris. After studies in electrical engineering, he graduated from the Breguet School and Supaéro. At the latter school, Bloch was classmates with a Russian student named Mikhail Gurevich, who would later be instrumental in the creation of the MiG aircraft series.
Bloch worked at the French Aeronautics Research Laboratory at Chalais-Meudon during World War I and invented a type of aircraft propeller subsequently used by the French army during the conflict. In 1916, with Henry Potez and Louis Coroller, he formed a company, the Société d'Études Aéronautiques, to produce the SEA series of fighters.
In 1928, Bloch founded the aircraft company Société des Avions Marcel Bloch, which produced its first aircraft in 1930. In 1935, Bloch and Henry Potez entered into an agreement to buy Société Aérienne Bordelaise (SAB). In 1936, the company was nationalized as the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest (SNCASO). Bloch agreed to become the delegated administrator of the Minister for Air.
During the occupation of France by Nazi Germany during World War II, France's aviation industry was virtually disbanded, other than the compulsory manufacturing, assembly, and servicing of German designs. In October 1940, Bloch refused to collaborate with the German occupiers at Bordeaux-Aéronautique and was imprisoned by the Vichy government.