René Fournier

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René Fournier (born April 13,  1921 in  Tours ) is a French aeronautical designer who has been developing various touring aircraft and motor glider variants since 1960 and had them manufactured in construction companies through licensing.

Life

René Fournier was born on April 13, 1921 in Tours, France. During the Second World War Fournier received training as an aircraft mechanic in the French military. Fournier survived the defeat of France in 1940 in Tunisia . After the Second World War, Fournier gained his first flight and design experience with Etienne de Nazaris in Cahors . Fournier's main job was as an art ceramist in Tours, where he had his own ceramic workshop. When the RSA (Réseau du Sport de l'Air) announced the prize for the best amateur aircraft manufacturer in France in Montargis in August 1951 , René Fournier was commissioned as a ceramist to create a suitable trophy. Inspired by this order, René Fournier began to work on the construction of aircraft in the 1950s. At the end of the fifties, Fournier created the design of a light sports aircraft in wooden construction under the name “Avions Planeur” , which aerodynamically met the requirements of a glider and could be operated with or without a motor.

Fournier Avion Planeur (1960)

Since 1957 the first "Avions Planeur" by René Fournier was created under the name Fournier RF-1 in Cannes on the Cote d'Azur. It took three years to build and was ready for its maiden flight in the spring of 1960 . Since René Fournier had neither a test pilot nor a license at that time , Charles Fauvel , who was also based in Cannes, took over the first flight with a Fournier aircraft on May 30, 1960. Fournier's flight instructor Michel Ciret carried out further testing of the RF-1 for the simplified verification of personal use in Cannes. After three years in Cannes, René Fournier returned to Tours in September 1960. Bernard Chauvreau, with whom Fournier had completed his first flying lessons in Tours in the mid-1950s and who now had a test pilot license, took over the flying support of Fourniers RF-1. He completed further test flights with the RF-1 and presented them at flight days in France. During a day of flying in Dijon , the RF-1 with Bernard Chauvreau at the wheel was lost in a crash. For more than 35 years, Chauvreau and Fournier worked together testing Fournier aircraft. All Fournier prototypes took off on their maiden flight with Bernard Chauvreau. At Alpavia , Chauvreau later worked as a works pilot before becoming a professional pilot for a regional airline.

Fournier and d'Assche (1962–1966)

The RF-1 attracted a lot of attention from French recreational pilots in the early 1960s. For this reason, Fournier received financial support from the French state for the construction of two further prototypes of the further developed Fournier RF-2 , which was intended to finance the aircraft's aviation approval and the establishment of series production . René Fournier commissioned Pierre Robin's Center Est Aeronautique (CEA) in Dijon to build the prototypes , where the first structural components were built in autumn 1961. Since Robin himself already had a comparable aircraft type with the Jodel DR 100 , he showed little interest in starting series production. After the construction of the prototypes at CEA was delayed again and again, René Fournier separated from Pierre Robin and entered into a new partnership with Comte Antoine d'Assche, who operated Société Alpavia as an aircraft construction company in Gap-Tallard . D'Assche took over the completion of the two RF-2s in March 1962 and in 1963 acquired the license rights to build the production version Fournier RF-3 . Fournier then ended his full-time ceramic work and devoted himself exclusively to aircraft development. Fournier's former partner, Bernard Chauvreau, joined Alpavia as a test pilot. D'Assche and Fournier worked together in the production and marketing of Fournier aircraft for more than ten years. D'Assche closed his production facility in Gap-Tallard in 1966 and participated in the new Fournier production facility Sportavia in Germany. From 1966, d'Assche was responsible for the distribution of Fournier aircraft in francophone regions before he completely retired from aviation in the early 1970s.

Fournier and Sportavia-Pützer (1966–1973)

Alfons Pützer was interested in series production of the RF-3 at Pützer Flugzeugbau in Bonn as early as 1963 . From 1964 Pützer took over the approval and sale of Fournier aircraft in German-speaking countries. Since d'Assche had no growth opportunities at Alpavia in the mid-1960s, he and Alfons Pützer founded the company Sportavia-Pützer in 1964 on the Dahlemer Binz in Germany . After the RF-3 production ended, Alpavia built three prototypes of the RF-4 for Fournier in Gap-Tallard, while the series production of 155 series machines under the designation RF-4D took place at Sportavia-Pützer in Germany from 1967. The two-seater development Fournier RF-5 was later built under license by Sportavia. During these years, Alfons Pützer had a strong influence on the development work of René Fournier and further developed some Fournier designs at Sportavia independently. The development of the four-seat Fournier RF-6B and the single-seat Fournier RF-7 also went back to an initiative by Alfons Pützer. After the complete takeover of Sportavia-Pützer by the Mönchengladbach aircraft construction company Rhein-Flugzeugbau , the cooperation between Fournier and Pützer weakened in the mid-1970s. Fournier became self-employed in 1974, while Sportavia derived its own further developments from the almost ten-year collaboration with Fournier in the following years.

Avions Fournier and René Caillet (from 1974–1986)

As early as 1967 René Fournier had relocated his development activities from the former Alpavia site in Gap-Tallard to Nitray near Tours. His friend Etienne d'Halluin built his own hangar for Fournier on his private property in Nitray and allowed Fournier to use his private runway for flight testing of his prototypes.

After the end of the collaboration with Sportavia, René Fournier founded his own aircraft construction company " Avions Fournier " in Nitray in 1974 . A larger workshop was built on the private property of d'Halluin and the airfield was given a paved taxiway to the runway. In 1976, the production of the two-seat trainer version of the Fournier RF-6 as the RF-6B in nitray , which was further developed by Fournier, began. Already at the end of 1977 Fournier had to stop the RF-6 production for financial reasons. René Caillet acquired the remnants of the production facility in Nitray in 1978 and continued the production of the RF-6B and the development work on the two-seater Fournier RF-9 with René Fournier as technical advisor under the new name "Fournier Aviation" in Nitray. At his suggestion, the first GRP aircraft by René Fournier, called the Fournier RF-10 , was built in the early 1980s . In Nitray, however, only a few series aircraft were built until the mid-1980s.

Caillet later gave the license rights to the RF-6 to Slingsby Aviation in England, which built the RF-6 as the Firefly T67 and T3A in larger numbers for the USAF . The Fournier RF-9 turned out to be too complex and expensive and did not go into series production either. With the Fournier RF-10 , a Fournier aircraft made of composite materials was created for the first time . A few examples were built at Marmande in France. Caillet sold the rights to the RF-10 to the company Aeronaves e Motores (Aeromot) in Brazil , which started a larger series under the name AMT-100 Ximango . The aircraft construction in Nitray ended in 1986 with the dissolution of Fournier Aviation.

Fournier and Aeronautica de Jaén (1986–1991)

After the closure of Fournier Aviation, René Fournier became a consultant for Jose Bautista de la Torre in 1986. De la Torre intended to set up an aircraft construction company in Baes de Segura, Spain, in the Andalusian province of Jaén . René Fournier convinced de la Torre to start a new production of the Fournier RF-5 in Baes. The production of the RF-5 started in 1990 in Baes. By 1995, however, only 10 Spanish RF-5-AJ1s had been built in Spain.

Fournier and Daout (Arc Atlantique) (from 1991–1995)

At the age of almost 70, René Fournier took over the development work on a training aircraft under the name Fournier RF-47 at Andre Daout in the early 1990s as a consultant for Arc Atlantique . With the FNA, Daout had determined the need for almost 1,600 training aircraft in France by the end of the millennium for which Fournier was to develop the RF-47. The prototype flew in 1995 and was then built in a small series at Euravial until it ceased operations in 1999. René Fournier finally retired from his career as an aircraft developer in the mid-1990s.

Other partnerships

With the two-seat trainer aircraft Fournier RF-8 , Fournier's first metal aircraft was built for the French army in the early 1970s. Although Fournier was working closely with Sportavia-Pützer at the time, which, however, had no metalworking experience, René Fournier needed a partnership with a French company in order to be able to use the funds of the French state for this aircraft. This resulted in the collaboration with the French aviation company Indraero , which built the prototype of the RF-8 between 1971 and 1974. The prototype, however, remained a one-off after the French Air Force decided on a different aircraft type. No further collaboration between Fournier and Indraero came about.

Aircraft developments by René Fournier

Almost 1,100 aircraft designed by René Fournier were built between 1960 and 2007 in ten different manufacturers or licensed companies:

  • Fournier RF-1 - first development by René Fournier, 1960, single item (F-WJGX)
  • Fournier RF-2 - revised RF-1 for French. Government, 1962, 2 pieces built by Robin (F-WJSR, F-WJSY) (1962)
  • Fournier RF-3 - revised series machine of the RF-2, 1963, 88 pieces built by Alpavia (1963–1966)
  • Fournier RF-4 - further development of the RF-3 suitable for aerobatics, 1966, 3 prototypes built by Alpavia, WNr. 4001-4003 (1966)
  • Sportavia RF-4D - modified RF-4 at Sportavia, 1966, 159 pieces built at Sportavia-Pützer, WNr. 4004-4158 (1967-1969)
  • Fournier RF-5 - two-seat variant of the RF-4, 1968, 1 × prototype from René Fournier, 135 pieces Sportavia-Pützer (1969–1975), 10 pieces Aero Jaen (1991–1995)
  • Sportavia RF-5B Sperber - modified RF-5 at Sportavia, 1971, 80 pieces built at Sportavia, WNr. 51001-51079 (1971-1977)
  • Sportavia C1 / S5 - up to 5 test vehicles at Sportavia based on RF-5 (quiet aircraft, radar measurement)
  • Fournier RF-6 - 2 + 2-seat sport aircraft, 1973, 2 prototypes
  • Fournier RF-6B - two-seater trainer version of the RF-6, 1975, 46 pieces built in nitray (1975–1980)
  • Slingsby T67 Firefly - GRP model of the RF-6B from Slingsby Aviation, 287 pieces (1980–2002)
  • Fournier RF-6C - four-seater RF6 at Sportavia, 1975, 4 pieces built at Sportavia, WNr. 6001-6004 (1975-1976)
  • RFB-Sportavia RS-180 - further developed RF-6C at Sportavia, 1976, 18 pieces built at Sportavia, WNr. 6005-6022 (1976-1981)
  • Fournier RF-7 - further development of the RF-4D for Sportavia with Limbach L1700D, 1970, a prototype
  • Fournier RF-8 - training aircraft for French Luftwaffe, 1973, a prototype (F-WSOY) completed at Indraéro
  • Fournier RF-9 - motor glider, 1977, 16 copies built by Avions Fournier, ABS Aircraft in Switzerland and Gomolzig in Germany
  • Fournier RF-10 - composite aircraft based on RF-9, 1984, 14 aircraft built at Marmande
  • Aeromot AMT Ximango - RF-10 GRP modification at Aeromot in Brazil, 1986, 202 at Aeronaves e Motores (1986–2007)
  • Fournier RF-47 - combined RF-4 and RF-7 as a trainer variant for Arc Atlantic Aviation, 1995, 2 prototypes and 4 × series production at Euravial (1991–1999)

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lutz Pritschow: Rene Fournier. 2010, accessed September 9, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Aviasport: Rene Fournier RF-01. November 1960. Retrieved December 28, 2017 .
  3. ^ Paul Zöller: Fournier Airplanes , 2017, ISBN 978-3-7460-4864-2
  4. ^ Rene Fournier: Mon reve et mes combats , Edition Sier, Jan. 2005, ISBN 978-2-9519-4580-7
  5. ^ Jose Camacho Estrella: La industria aeronautica "El Conrcabral" . Öa Vol, 1991.
  6. ↑ PD Stemp: Kites, Birds and Stuff, Vol 4. 2012, accessed September 9, 2017 .
  7. ↑ P. Underhill: Pilot Magazine: Fournier RF-47. May 1995, accessed December 27, 2017 .
  8. ^ Paul Zöller: Fournier Airplanes , 2017, ISBN 978-3-7460-4864-2
personal data
SURNAME Fournier, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French aircraft designer
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Tours