Nationalised by the Popular Front

When Léon Blum’s Popular Front came to power in 1936, French military aviation was lagging badly behind a rearming Germany. The nationalisation law of 11 August 1936 gathered two-thirds of the aircraft industry into six state-controlled regional companies, each two-thirds owned by the state. In the south-west, the Dewoitine works at Toulouse became the Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Midi, SNCAM, in 1937. Its sites spread across the city, from flight testing at Francazal to the design office at Montaudran.

Building the D.520

The reorganisation nearly killed SNCAM’s most important aircraft. Work on Dewoitine’s new fighter was suspended for much of 1937, but Émile Dewoitine, now deputy managing director, pressed on with prototypes on his own initiative until a ministry contract arrived in April 1938. The D.520 first flew on 2 October 1938 and entered service in January 1940. Slower than the Bf 109E but more manoeuvrable, it was the one French fighter close to a match for the Messerschmitt, but too few were available when the Germans attacked.

Absorbed after the fall

In 1939 SNCAM built a new assembly hall and test hangar at Saint-Martin-du-Touch, designed by the architect René Kieger. It had little time to use it. After the 1940 armistice the state companies were reorganised, and SNCAM was absorbed into SNCASE, which later merged with SNCASO to form Sud Aviation. Through those mergers, SNCAM’s Toulouse holdings passed eventually into today’s Airbus. Its 1937 sites were scattered across the city: Francazal for testing, Les Récollets for assembly, Montaudran for design, Mondran for administration and an apprentice school on the rue Frizac.

Заводы

• Francazal · Toulouse — Flight testing
• Montaudran · Toulouse — Design office
• Saint-Martin-du-Touch · Toulouse — Assembly hall and test hangar built 1939, architect René Kieger

Люди

• Émile Dewoitine · deputy managing director — Drove the D.520 forward privately in 1938
• Henri de l’Escaille · chairman of the national companies’ boards