Marcel Dassault

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 ChalaisMeudon 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 dÉtudes 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 Frances 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 BordeauxAéronautique and was imprisoned by the Vichy government In 1944 the Nazis deported Bloch to the Buchenwald concentration camp as punishment for refusing to cooperate with their regime He was tortured beaten and held in solitary confinement In the meantime his wife was interned near Paris Bloch was detained at Buchenwald until it was liberated on 11 April 1945 By the time of his return to Paris he was crippled to such an extent that he could barely walk He was advised by his doctors to settle his affairs as they did not expect him to recover his health After the war he changed his name from Bloch to BlochDassault and in 1949 to Dassault This name was the nom de guerre used by his brother General Darius Paul Bloch when he served in the French resistance and is derived from char dassault French for tank In 1971 Dassault acquired Breguet forming Avions Marcel DassaultBreguet Aviation AMDBA In 1919 Bloch married Madeleine Minckes the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family of furniture dealers They had two sons Claude and Serge After changing his name to Dassault nom de guerre from his brother General Paul Bloch was Chardasso and derived from char dassaut for tank in French he converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1950 Source Article Marcel Dassault from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30