Blériot, Bloch and Bordeaux

SNCASO was created on 16 November 1936, one of seven state aircraft companies carved out of the private industry by Léon Blum’s Popular Front. It took over Blériot at Suresnes, Marcel Bloch’s plants at Villacoublay and Courbevoie, three Bordeaux firms and the Lioré et Olivier works at Rochefort, and built a new factory at Déols the same year. In 1941 it also absorbed the ailing SNCAO. Under German occupation its designers were dispersed, and a team in Cannes quietly drew the Bretagne airliner that flew in February 1945.

A jet designed in secret

Other work was more secret still. A clandestine study led by Lucien Servanty in 1943 became the SO.6000 Triton, and on 11 November 1946 it became the first French jet aircraft to fly, initially with a captured-design Junkers Jumo 004 engine because the French turbojet was not ready. The Triton never entered service, nor did the heavy SO.4000 jet bomber, which was obsolete by its 1950 roll-out. But they taught Sud-Ouest about swept wings, ejection and jet handling. Servanty later led the design side of Concorde.

Djinn, Vautour and the merger

The lessons paid off. The SO.1221 Djinn, first flown in January 1953, drove its rotor with compressed air blown out of the blade tips; it was the first French production helicopter and the first tip-jet rotorcraft to go into production. The SO.4050 Vautour flew in October 1952 and served as bomber, attack aircraft and night fighter, carrying French nuclear weapons for a time and flying in combat with Israel until 1972. On 1 March 1957 Sud-Ouest merged with Sud-Est to form Sud Aviation.

Fabrieken

• Suresnes works · Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine — Former Blériot factory
• Villacoublay and Courbevoie works · Île-de-France — Former Bloch plants
• Bordeaux works · Mérignac, Bègles and Bacalan, Gironde — Former SASO, UCA and SAB plants
• Rochefort works · Rochefort, Charente-Maritime — Former Lioré et Olivier plant
• Déols factory · Déols, Indre — Built new in 1936

Mensen

• Lucien Servanty · engineer — Led the secret 1943 study that became the Triton

Records en primeurs

• SO.6000 Triton: first French jet aircraft to fly, 11 November 1946
• SO.1221 Djinn: first tip-jet rotorcraft to enter production