Laboratoire de recherches balistiques et aerodynamiques

Coordinates: 49 ° 6 ′ 33 "  N , 1 ° 29 ′ 50"  E

LRBA​

France

The Laboratoire de recherches balistiques et aérodynamiques (LRBA) was a French aerospace research center in Vernon . It was under the Direction générale de l'Armement (DGA) of the French military.

The beginnings

Find a place

The origins of the LRBA date back to the end of the Second World War, when the French state had the opportunity to conduct research in the field of rockets using liquid fuel . The basis for this was the collaboration of German rocket technicians who had worked on the A4 (V2) in Peenemünde until the end of the war . Similar actions were carried out to varying degrees by the USA ( Operation Overcast ), Great Britain ( Operation Backfire ) and the Soviet Union.

Two working groups were to be formed: one for rocket propulsion under the direction of Otto Müller and one for rocket control under the direction of Rolf Jauernik . Müller and Jauernik were free to choose their German employees themselves. Most of the employees were hired in mid-May 1946 after they had finished their work for the British Ministry of Supply in Cuxhaven (MOSEC).

Since there were no laboratories and test stands for liquid rockets in France, the German technicians first worked in Emmendingen , in the French-occupied zone of Germany, and in the neighboring towns of Riegel am Kaiserstuhl and Denzlingen .

Meanwhile, General Paul Libessart , an engineer, has been hired by the Direction Des Etudes Et Fabrications D'Armement (DEFA) to find a suitable location for research and development. Eventually he found something suitable near Vernon in Normandy : an unused state-owned factory in the middle of the forest, with only one access road, but not too far from Paris.

founding

On May 17, 1946, the Laboratoire de recherches du service technique was founded by decree 46-1089 , which was renamed Laboratoire de recherches balistiques et aérodynamiques (LRBA) on July 31, 1946 . The first director was Libessart himself.

The administration of the LRBA was in the Sully barracks in Saint-Cloud . In addition to Vernon, other locations were assigned to the LRBA:

• a laboratory in Saint-Louis , which later became the Franco-German Research Institute , with a test site near Mulhouse ,
• the technical test laboratory ETVS in Versailles -Satory,
• the Fort de la Briche near Paris

In April 1949 this organization was split up and only the Vernon location retained the LRBA designation.

In addition to Müller and Jauernick, the rocket engineers in Vernon also included Karl-Heinz Bringer , who later developed the Viking engine for the Ariane 1 , Rolf Engel , Helmut Habermann and Wolfgang Pilz . In addition to the two departments for drive and control, a third was soon set up to deal with aerodynamics in the supersonic range. For this purpose, a supersonic wind tunnel was soon built on the site .

Maybach group

In December 1946, under the direction of Karl Maybach , around 75 engineers came to Vernon from Friedrichshafen . Their task was to design an engine for a tank weighing 50 tons. After a prototype was made in January 1948 and series production started, this group dispersed again.

Research projects

Project Super V2

In August 1946, considerations began as to which steps would be necessary so that France could have large missiles based on the A4 . At the beginning of 1947, however, it became apparent that the construction of factories, test stands and launching ramps would not be completed before 1952, so it did not seem appropriate to concentrate on the A4.

Instead, a new development was tackled under project number 4211, which was based on the concept of the A9 . This "Super-V2" should be able to transport a payload of 1000 kg over a range of 3600 km. An engine with 40 t thrust was necessary for this. However, the French state soon no longer had any interest in a rocket of this size, so that the 4211 project was discontinued after the feasibility study in 1948. After the end of this project, only about 30 Germans remained at the LRBA.

Veronique

From March 1949 a much smaller sounding rocket was designed in the LRBA under the project number 4213 , the Veronique (VERnon-électrONIQUE) with only 4 tons of thrust. This development resulted in the first airworthy liquid rocket in France. Between 1950 and 1975 almost 100 copies were launched, with heights of up to 366 km being reached. The further development Vesta even increased to 400 km.

Parallel to the Veronique, the LRBA worked under the direction of Jean-Jacques Barré on tests of the Eole rocket (Engin fonctionnant à l'Oxygène Liquide et à l'Ether de pétrole). The first test ignition in February 1949 was satisfactory, the second led to a major explosion on January 6, 1950, in which three employees were injured and the test facilities were destroyed.

PARCA

Another important area of ​​research was the guidance and control of a missile, also for military purposes. Here the LRBA worked on the radio-controlled surface-to-air missile PARCA (Projectile autopropulsé radioguidé contre avions) in cooperation with the Aquitaine radar device . Despite more than 200 test shots with satisfactory results, this development was discontinued in 1958 after the French state, like other NATO partners, decided to take over the American Hawk . With the development, valuable experience about steering and control could be gained.

diamond

From 1961 the engines for the Diamant rocket were developed in the LRBA , first the Vexin engine with 27 t thrust for the Diamant A, later the Valois engine with 35 t thrust for the Diamant B and the Diamant BP4. A Diamant A launched Astérix , the first French satellite, into orbit on November 26, 1965 . This made France the third country after the Soviet Union and the USA with its own launch vehicle .

Europe

Since the beginning of the 1960s there have been initiatives by several European countries to develop a joint launch vehicle called Europe , which in 1964 led to the establishment of the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO). France contributed the second stage Coralie , which was developed in the LRBA in cooperation with Nord Aviation . The Cora aircraft was designed to test this level independently of the other levels . Neither Cora's test flights nor those of the entire rocket from 1968-1970 were successful. The project was canceled and later replaced by Ariane .

restructuring

For the LRBA, this international cooperation had an impact on the organization. As early as 1967 it was subordinated to the new Direction Technique des Engins (DTEn). In addition, the civil international sphere had to be strictly separated from the military state. As a result, on October 1, 1971, the civil part of the LRBA was spun off to the Société européenne de propulsion (SEP) founded in 1969 . The military part of the LRBA, which dealt mainly with guided missiles, was retained under its previous name. Before the separation, the LRBA had around 1000 employees, after that another 460.

The development of the Viking engine , which was used extremely successfully in the Ariane, was carried out in Vernon, but no longer at the LRBA.

Since the magnetic bearings that were developed at LRBA, were used not only militarily but also commercially, this field was in the 1976 Société de Mécanique magnétique outsourced (S2M) in 2007 by the SKF acquired and in the SKF Magnetics was renamed .

Since 1977, the LRBA has been subordinate to the newly founded procurement authority Direction générale de l'Armement (DGA).

terrain

The site in Vernon originally housed a factory for the ammunition manufacturer Brandt . In 1936 it became state property under the name Atelier de chargement de Vernon (AVN). During the German occupation, the site was used by the Société Niortaise de Construction Mécanique (SNCM) . On May 7th and June 2nd, 1944, the factory was bombed by the Allies.

The bush village

After the Second World War, the site remained unused until it was taken over by the LRBA in the spring of 1946 and new laboratories, workshops, test stands and accommodations were built. To keep the Germans away from the hostile natives, they lived with their families in a makeshift settlement, the Cité de la Madeleine , which the Germans called “Buschdorf”. The move of the German rocket engineers took place in two phases: at the end of March and mid-May 1947, the Maybach group had been on the site since December 1946.

Several buildings for housing were constructed. At the end of 1949, 40 accommodations were occupied by Germans, and a further 22 residential buildings were built around 1950. The buildings usually had three apartments, and sometimes two larger apartments for large families. The standard of living was not very high: there was no running hot water, and neither a cellar nor an attic. French employees who were transferred to Vernon from other research facilities found the accommodations to be inappropriate.

In the first few years, the families were dependent on dealers who came up to the bush village from Vernon by moped, car or van. A grocery store was later set up. In October 1951, a primary school with two classes was opened on the site. At that time, 235 people in 72 households lived on the site.

Some of the buildings were in the area of ​​the municipality of Bois-Jérôme-Saint-Ouen , but they came to the municipality of Vernon in 1954 through a border adjustment .

As employees became more prosperous, the accommodations became less and less attractive. In 1977/78 the first five residential buildings were demolished, others followed. At the end of 1979 only 29 apartments were owned by the LRBA; on May 1, 1984 none of the accommodation was occupied. In the following years, the French army used the buildings to practice house- to- house fighting .

Facilities

In addition to the development laboratories, test stands were also required for the engines. The first (PF1) went into operation in 1949 and was able to test engines with a thrust of up to 15 t. However, it was completely destroyed on January 6, 1950 in the explosion of an Eole engine and temporarily replaced by PF3.

The test stand PF2 was designed for a thrust of up to 25 t (briefly 50 t) and went into operation in 1961. PF4 followed in 1963 and was able to test engines with a thrust of up to 100 t. The test stand PF5 had a pressure chamber with which the operation in the high atmosphere or in a vacuum could be simulated.

A supersonic wind tunnel called C4 was also built on the site in 1952. With two electric motors of 6500 kW each, it was possible to achieve flow speeds of Mach 1.35 to Mach 4.4 in a cross-section of 40 cm × 40 cm, depending on the applied air pressure, which could be up to 10 bar. This facility was also used by other companies. The wind tunnel went out of operation in 1999 and has since been demolished, although there is no comparable facility in France.

Another aerodynamic device was the firing channel over 100 m in length. With a light gas cannon it was possible to fire projectiles of up to 300 g mass at speeds of up to 6 km / s. This allowed research into the behavior of space capsules or ICBMs upon reentry . The firing channel went out of service in 2000.

closure

On July 24, 2008, the French Defense Minister Hervé Morin declared that the research laboratory in Vernon would have to be closed in order to save money. By the end of 2012, all activities should be taken over by the DGA Maîtrise de l'information (formerly Center d'électronique de l'armement , CELAR) in Bruz .

List of directors of the LRBA 1946–1997

• 1946–1949: Paul Libessart
• 1949-1953: Jean Sorlet
• 1953–1962: Pierre Girardin
• 1962–1971: Jacques Marchal
• 1971–1980: Damian Bagaria
• 1980–1985: Francois Simon
• 1985-1989: Bernard Laurent
• 1989–1994: Jacques Darricau
• 1994–1997: Lyonel Gouédard

Source:

Web links

• Website of the DGA Maîtrise de l'information sur le site de la DGA (French)
• AVAS (Association pour la Valorisation de l'Aventure Spatiale européenne) (French)
• From German V-2s to the Ariane Rocket: 60 Years of Space Research in Vernon ( Memento from July 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
• The way from Riegel to Vernon - exhibition at Museum Riegel (German)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Le dernier directeur du LRBA. paris-normandie.fr, September 17, 2010, archived from the original ; Retrieved July 25, 2011 (French). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Christian Vanpouille: La cité de la Madeleine de sa création à nos jours. (PDF, 3.76 MB) December 2005, accessed on July 19, 2011 (French). 
3. ^ ^{A b} Engineer General de l'armement Marchal: Comité pour l'histoire de l'armement terrestre (COMHART). October 1988
4. ↑ Vincent Nouzille, Olivier Huwart: Comment la France a recruté des savants de Hitler. L'Express, May 20, 1999, accessed July 18, 2011 . 
5. ^ ^{A b} Hervé Moulin: La France dans l'Espace 1959-1979. Contribution à l'effort spatial européen. (PDF, 2.3 MB) ESA, June 2006, accessed on July 18, 2011 (French). 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Un demi-siècle d'aéronautique en France. (PDF; 6.2 MB) Jean-Marc Weber, 2008, p. 44 , accessed on July 18, 2011 (French). 
7. ↑ Otto Müller: Informations relative au groupe d'ingénieurs allemands qui ont travaillé à dater de 1947 dans le cadre du LRBA à VERNON. (PDF, 0.9 MB) January 1987, accessed on July 19, 2011 (French). 
8. ↑ Réforme et carte militaire: Discours du ministre de la defense - Hervé Morin. Fédération Nationale des Combattants Volontaire, July 24, 2008, accessed July 25, 2011 (in French). 
9. ^ Claude Labit, Daniel Delaveau, Olivier Lesbre: DGA (ex Celar) renforce sa présence à Bruz. Ouest-France, July 8, 2010, accessed July 18, 2011 (French).