Bernard Ziegler

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Bernard Ziegler, 1972

Bernard Ziegler (born March 12, 1933 in Boulogne sur Seine ) is a French pilot , aircraft technician and manager . From 1972 he was chief pilot at the Airbus group and later held management positions there.

life and work

Bernard Ziegler is the son of fighter pilot and Airbus founder Henri Ziegler (1906–1998), who was also the group's first CEO. In 1954 he was accepted into the École polytechnique near Paris, one of the country's famous elite universities . He was trained as a fighter pilot at the École de l'air , the military college of the French air force . He took part in the Algerian war. On August 29, 1961, he caused a serious accident on board his Thunderstreak in the Vallée Blanche . He tried to escape the radar on a test flight, when his plane cut the cable of a gondola lift, killing six people. In the same year he continued his studies. He entered the Aerospace College (SUPAERO) and then completed training as a test pilot at the École du personnel navigant d'essais et de réception (EPNER). In 1968 he became a test pilot of the Dassault Mirage G , a single-engine multi-role fighter aircraft produced by the French manufacturer Dassault Aviation .

In 1972 he took on the role of chief test pilot at the Airbus Group, which was then headed by his father. Henri Ziegler, who was involved in the development of the Concorde , and the son both propagated computer-controlled flying, on the one hand fly-by-wire , electronic aircraft control using control commands, and on the other hand autopilot and flight envelope protection , an independent protection against wrong decisions at the Flight limit. The unreserved commitment to electronics was and is in part the main technical difference to other manufacturers such as Boeing , McDonnell Douglas or Lockheed to this day . Ziegler was responsible for the development of the A300 , A310 , A320 and A340 series . His frank words to the press sometimes caused turbulence for the group, for example he said of the A320: "Cet avion est tellement facile qu'il pourrait être piloté par ma concierge." [This aircraft is so simply designed that it was designed by my caretaker could be flown].

Sidestick in the A380

Ziegler revolutionized the interface between man and machine by completely redesigning the cockpit - already on the A310 - and doing without the flight engineer , the third man in the cockpit. His philosophy of the "dark, quiet cockpit" included a strict forward alignment of the pilots, with overhead panels and extinguishing of the light when functioning, so that non-functioning or failed systems are immediately noticed. The A320 cockpit has been described as revolutionary because it is equipped with sidestick controls and electronic centralized aircraft monitors ( ECAM ).

In 1997, Bernard Ziegler retired from management positions at Airbus.

publication

  • Cowboys d'Airbus , 2008

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Le Dauphiné: L'avion sectionne le câble et estompe l'exploit du Frêney , accessed on December 24, 2019
  2. ↑ Le blog de Christian Roger , accessed October 27, 2019
  3. ↑ a b FARNBOROUGH: Airbus's fly-by-wire pioneer Bernard Ziegler wins Flightglobal Lifetime Achievement Award , Flight International, July 11, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Ziegler, Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French pilot and Airbus manager
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Boulogne sur Seine , France