Avions Fournier

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Avions Fournier SA was a French aircraft construction company, which was based in Nitray between 1975 and 1986 and built aircraft from the French sports aircraft designer René Fournier in series.

history

Fournier development office (1966–1973)

After the closing of the Alpavia production facility in Gap Tallard , France, the French aircraft designer René Fournier returned to his home region of Touraine . At the Chateau Nitray, Fournier set up an engineering office for the development of future aircraft types and a small workshop for prototype construction in a side building. In this development workshop, the prototypes of the Fournier RF-5 were created in 1967 and the prototype of the Fournier RF-7 at the end of the 1960s , whose series production was to take place in the future at the production partner Sportavia-Pützer in Germany. The designs for the four-seat Fournier RF-6C and the all-metal Fournier RF-8 trainer were also created in the development office in Nitray. The prototypes were, however, already built by the later series production companies Sportavia-Pützer and Indraero .

Société Avions Fournier (1974–1977)

Since the German production partner Sportavia-Pützer was not interested in series production of the two-seater trainer variant Fournier RF-6B developed by Fournier and Fournier could not find an alternative production partner for this aircraft, Fournier founded the Société Avions Fournier on January 10, 1974 in Nitray . In Nitray, a 1200 m² workshop was built by mid-1975 in which the RF-6B aircraft were assembled from sub-suppliers' prefabricated assemblies. The assembly line started in December 1975. The first series-produced aircraft in Nitray took off on its maiden flight on March 4, 1976. In the engineering office, which continued to exist independently of Avions Fournier, the prototype of the Fournier RF-9 was built by the end of 1976 , which flew for the first time in early 1977 and was to expand the RF-6B production at Avions Fournier.

As part of a failed debt rescheduling measure for the production expansion, René Fournier had to file for bankruptcy of Avions Fournier in May 1977 . Since no buyer could be found for the company, the Société Avions Fournier was closed in December 1977 after the delivery of 40 RF-6B series machines and the construction of one RF-6B and one RF-9 prototype each.

Fournier Aviation (1978–1986)

René Caillet founded Fournier Aviation in early 1978 independently of Société Avions Fournier . From the Avions Fournier bankruptcy estate that was up for sale, Caillet acquired the production facilities in Nitray and the rights to the RF-6B development for Fournier Aviation. René Fournier became a technical consultant at Fournier Aviation and continued the development work on the RF-9 for Fournier Aviation.

With a small workforce, Fournier Aviation completed another five RF-6Bs with still existing assemblies by 1980, one of which was used by Fournier on behalf of René Caillet to further develop the more powerful RF-6B-120. Rene Caillet then sold the RF-6B rights and the existing nitray production facilities to the English aviation company Slingsby Aviation , which successfully continued RF-6B production in Kirkbymoorside under the name Slingsby T.67 Firefly until the end of the 1990s.

Series production of the RF-9 design completed by Fournier for Fournier Aviation began in Nitray at the end of 1979. Due to the slow sales of the wooden structure, René Caillet asked Fournier to develop the RF-9 into a fiber composite construction , which René Fournier completed as Fournier RF-10 by 1984. Series production at Fournier Aviation had largely come to a standstill at the end of 1981 after the completion of 11 RF-9 aircraft and three kits. In the following years Fournier was only involved in the assembly of RF-10 prototypes. For the RF-10, René Caillet signed a license agreement with the French Aerostructure SARL , which was supposed to produce assembly sets for self-construction. The demand for finished aircraft led to the construction of an assembly line for the RF-10 at Fournier Aviation in Nitray in 1984, before René Caillet sold the complete rights and production facilities for the RF-10 to the Brazilian Aeronaves e Motores , which owned the RF-10 from 1986 in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre as Aeromot AMT "Ximango" built until 2009 in series.

The Fournier Aviation production facility in Nitray was finally closed in 1986 after a total of 33 aircraft had been completed. Fournier Aviation was still involved in the sale of some Aeromot AMT "Ximango" in Europe in the early 1990s. After that, Fournier Aviation was dissolved. René Caillet retired from aviation. After retiring as a consultant for Fournier Aviation, René Fournier started working for the Spanish Coparavia, later Aeronautica de Jaen , in 1986 .

A total of 75 aircraft were built between 1974 and 1986 at Avions Fournier and its successor, Fournier Aviation. The company in Nitray was only an assembly company that finally assembled the aircraft assemblies produced by sub-suppliers.

A detailed overview of all 77 Nitray-built Fournier aircraft can be found at

Aircraft types

Avions Fournier

Fournier Aviation

See also

people

literature

Web links

  • Forgotten Airfields - Photo collection and information about aircraft construction in Nitray
  • Aeroclub 77 - Report and photos for René Fournier's 90th birthday in Nitray

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Forgotten Airfields: Forgotten Airfields: Nitray. Retrieved January 8, 2018 .
  2. ↑ René Fournier: Mon reve et mes combats , Edition Sier, Jan. 2005, ISBN 978-2-9519-4580-7
  3. ^ Paul Zöller: Fournier Airplanes , 2017, ISBN 978-3-7460-4864-2