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 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.

In 1944, the Nazis deported Bloch to the Buchenwald concentration camp, as punishment for refusing to co-operate 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 Bloch-Dassault 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 d'assault, French for "tank". In 1971, Dassault acquired Breguet, forming Avions Marcel Dassault–Breguet Aviation (AMD–BA).

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 d’assaut for tank in French), he converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1950. ...

Source: Article "Marcel Dassault" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.