Georges Bernard Bridel

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Georges Bernard Bridel (born June 14, 1946 in Lucerne ) is a Swiss engineer and aerospace specialist . He was responsible for a number of aircraft developments, concepts, operational studies and historical treatises, including Head of Pre-Development for Military Aircraft at EADS Military Air Systems, now Airbus , in Manching .

origin

Georges Bridel comes from an old Swiss Vaudois family (14th century) who are entitled to live in Moudon , Vevey ( canton of Vaud ) and Biel ( canton of Bern ). His father André Victor Bridel was a colonel and a military pilot in the Swiss Air Force . The great uncle Robert Gsell worked as a Swiss aviation pioneer from the very beginning with a Swiss certification number 13 in France, Germany and Switzerland. The great-grandfather was the chief engineer Gustave Bridel , who, among other things, directed the first correction of the Jura waters and, from 1879 to 1883, the expansion of the Gotthard Railway, including the construction of the large tunnel. Another great-grandfather, Colonel Victor Fehr , was lord of the Ittingen Charterhouse in the canton of Thurgau and Dr. hc. of the ETH in Zurich.

Career

Georges Bridel attended the Cantonal School in Lucerne and studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ( ETHZ ) and obtained his diploma as a mechanical engineer in 1971. He then worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Aerodynamics at the ETH in Zurich, graduating as Dr. sc. techn. in 1978. Among other things, he still studied with Jakob Ackeret , a Swiss aerodynamics pioneer.

From 1979 to 1985 Bridel headed the concept development for the light combat aircraft ALR Piranha , which was carried out in the final phase together with the Boeing Military Aircraft Company ( Wichita , today Boeing Defense, Space and Security ). In 1981 Bridel founded the ALR (working group for aerospace) in Zurich with engineers, pilots and colleagues from the military and science. The flight performance program APP was developed parallel to the Piranha advance development.

From 1986 to 1990 Bridel led the development of the training aircraft FFA 2000 EUR coach on behalf of the flight and vehicle works FFA in Altenrhein (Switzerland), at the time a company of the Justus Dornier - group .

From 1993 to 2011 Bridel was Vice-President responsible for the advance development and technologies of fighter aircraft at DASA ( Deutsche Aerospace ), later renamed EADS (European Aeronautics and Space Company), today Airbus Defense and Space (Airbus Group). The most important work concerned the project management and flight testing of the DASA-Rockwell Ranger 2000 jet training aircraft , the concepts for the further development of the Tornado and Eurofighter fighter aircraft, as well as future European military manned and unmanned aircraft concepts (FAWS Future Airborne Weapon System-Germany, various UAV systems and FOAS Future Offensive Air System). In spring 2018, the concepts were finally transferred to a Franco-German project for the European Future Combat Air System . In 2003, the testing of the German-American research aircraft Rockwell-MBB X-31 was completed in his department .

From 1981 to 2001 Bridel was President of the Swiss Association for Aviation Sciences ( SVFW) . In 2008 he was President of the umbrella organization of the European aerospace societies CEAS Council of European Aerospace Societies . Bridel is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society , Membre titulaire de l'Académie de l'air et espace AAE in Paris and has been committed to the continued existence of the European military aviation industry since 2011. Since 2017 he has been the President of the ALR (Aerospace Working Group). Since 2017, he has been in charge of concept development for the smallest possible high-performance aircraft at this ALR.

Publications

• Swiss jet planes and jet engines. Swiss Museum of Transport, Lucerne, special publication No. 2, 1975, ISBN 3-85954-902-2 .
• Gustave Bridel, Alpine Railway Engineers, Swiss pioneers in business and technology. Association for economic history studies, Meilen 2001, ISBN 3-909059-19-8 .
• Looking at future fighter concepts for EADS Military Aircraft, Interavia Vol 56, 2001
• Jakob Ackeret, Swiss pioneer in air traffic, Swiss pioneers in business and technology. Association for Economic History Studies, Meilen 1998, ISBN 3-909059-15-5 .
• Juerg Branger, 5 pioneers in aircraft construction, Swiss pioneers in business and technology. Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-909059-38-6 .
• Development of Prospective Projects and Technologies in Western European Collaboration. ASTEC Congress, Moscow 2007.
• " What future for the European combat aircraft industry? A Death foretold? ", G. Bridel, 3rd CEAS Air & Space Conference, 21st AIDAA Congress 2011, Venice, Italy
• From Basel to St. Petersburg - Aeronautical and Scientific Milestones: Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler a Russian-Swiss Heritage. ICAS Congress 2014.
• Safeguarding the European Combat Aircraft Industry , G. Bridel, 5th CEAS Air & Space Conference, 7-11 September 2015, Delft, NL
• De l'Aéronautique Militaire Européenne: expérience vécue . Grande société, Bern, June 11, 2015.
• Georges Bridel: Janus, High-Energy Supersonic & Low-Cost Aircraft. SMi Conference, London 2016.
• European Combat Aircraft Industry, from Today's Success to Tomorrow's Death ?, The 3rd European Air & Space Congress, CEAS. Venice 2017.
• 10 years of Swiss jet planes and jet engines 1948–1958, or “The missed opportunities”.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ interavia: Looking at future fighter concepts for EADS Military Aircraft. In: Vol 56, 2001. Interavia, September 2001, accessed February 9, 2020 (English). 
2. ↑ ALR Aerospace - About ALR
3. ^ Georges Bridel: Janus Advanced Trainer Aircraft Concept. In: Aerospace Working Group. September 21, 2016, accessed February 9, 2020 . 
4. ^ G. Bridel et al .: JANUS - A NEW APPROACH TO AIR COMBAT PILOT TRAINING. Transactions on Aerospace Research, December 26, 2019, accessed February 9, 2020 . 
5. ^ Georges Bridel: "De l'Aéronautique Militaire Européenne: expérience vécue". In: Aerospace Working Group. 2015, accessed February 9, 2019 (French).