Rousseau Aviation

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Rousseau Aviation
IATA code : (without)
ICAO code : RU
Call sign : (unknown)
Founding: 1963
Operation stopped: 1976
Seat: Dinard-Pleurtuit Airport , France
FranceFrance 
Home airport : Dinard-Pleurtuit Airport
Fleet size: 12
Aims: international
Rousseau Aviation ceased operations in 1976. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Rousseau Aviation was a French airline with seat in Dinard , Ille-et-Vilaine , which operated 1963-1976 scheduled and charter flights, including several with Aérospatiale N 262 .

The base of flight operations was the Dinard-Pleurtuit airport .

history

Rousseau Aviation was founded in 1963 and began flight operations in July of the same year. The first routes were offered to the British Channel Islands. When more and more regional routes were abandoned by Air Inter due to a lack of profitability, Rousseau took over part of the same such as B. the one from Bordeaux to Nantes . In this way, the route network was expanded to complement those of the national airlines (Air France, Air Inter and UTA) and soon included several airports not only in Brittany , but also in Lorraine and the greater Paris area.

The fleet consisted of a colorful mix of single- and twin-engine propeller-driven aircraft, some of which only had one of each type. The backbone of flight operations, however, were the 26-seat turboprop engine Nord 262 , of which a total of 10 were operated, and the 32-seat Douglas DC-3 from the period up to 1945 (12). A number of other used DC-3s were acquired by the French Air Force and either cannibalized for replacement parts or sold on.

In May and October 1970 two brand new Hawker Siddeley HS-748s were added, which had 52 seats; in the same year one each was leased from Channel Airways and Court Line . Another brand new machine followed in June 1973.

Further international scheduled flights were added from 1970 with routes to London , Basel and Geneva and the Paris-Quimper route was flown in mixed colors on behalf of Air Inter. In 1970, with just 350 employees, it carried 200,000 passengers.

After several accidents with total write-offs of aircraft, the economic situation became more difficult and led to the fact that in 1973 the majority of the capital was taken over by the owner group of the airline TAT (Touraine Air Transport). In the same year, work began on equipping the first machines with TAT colors.

In the last year of operation, 1975, Beechcraft Bonanza and Baron, HS-748 and Nord 262 were still represented in the fleet, but in 1976 Rousseau was fully integrated into TAT.

Destinations

In the winter half of the year, flights were traditionally reduced. For example, in the 1971/72 winter flight schedule, the Nantes – Dinard – London / Gatwick route was only offered once a day and the “main line” from Dinard to Jersey was reduced to three times a day, all with North 262. The HS-748 connection from Dinard via Rennes to Paris-Orly airport was covered with two daytime marginal connections.

In comparison, one and a half years later, in the summer of 1973, considerably more destinations were offered and, above all, the transfer connections to other companies were greatly expanded. The destination airport in London was relocated from Gatwick to Heathrow. B. Cardiff, Düsseldorf and Exeter can also be reached.

fleet

Nord 262 of Rousseau Aviation, Quimper 1968
HS-748 from Rousseau Aviation, 1970

During its existence, Rousseau Aviation used the following types of aircraft:

Fleet at the end of operations

Previously deployed aircraft

Incidents

From 1963 to the cessation of operations in 1975, Rousseau Aviation suffered six total losses of aircraft. In 2 of them, 32 people were killed. Extracts:

  • On December 31, 1970, a Rousseau Aviation Nord 262E ( aircraft registration F-BNGB) disappeared on a charter flight from Algiers to the Spanish airport of Menorca . There were 27 passengers and 3 crew members on board. The Spanish side suspected that the machine crashed about 100 km from the Algerian coast after an emergency call was sent by its pilots.
  • On December 5, 1971, a Nord 262A-25 of Rousseau Aviation (F-BNMO) collided with a pine tree while approaching Lannion Airport . A 1.90 meter long piece of a wing broke off. After a flight of 1,800 meters, the machine, which was on a transfer flight, crashed about two kilometers west of the airport. Two of the three inmates were killed.
  • On July 2, 1972, a Douglas DC-3 / C-47B of Rousseau Aviation (F-WSGU) had to make an emergency landing during a transfer flight to the USA at Kulusuk Airport ( Greenland ). It was so damaged that it was no longer possible to repair it on the remote airfield.
  • On November 12, 1973, a Nord 262B-11 of Rousseau Aviation (F-BLHT) had to make an emergency landing near Craon (Mayenne) due to lack of fuel . The machine had not previously been refueled in Lyon, and the pilots had not checked the fuel level before taking off from Tours Airport . Both passengers and the three crew members survived.
  • On December 29, 1973, a North 262A-24 was the Rousseau Aviation (F-BNTT) on the airport Dole Tavaux irreparable damage.

See also

Web links

Commons : Rousseau Aviation  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ rzjets, Rousseau Aviation (English), accessed on December 16, 2018.
  2. ↑ Jennifer M. Gradidge: The Douglas DC-1 / DC-2 / DC-3: The First Seventy Years, Volumes One and Two . Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 2006, ISBN 0-85130-332-3 , p. 183.
  3. ^ Richard J. Church: The Avro 748 . Air-Britain Publishing, Staplefield, 2017, p. 130, ISBN 978-0-85130-492-2 .
  4. ↑ rzjets, Rousseau Aviation
  5. ↑ rzjets, Rousseau Aviation
  6. ^ Jean-Paul Leroy: Rousseau Aviation (French), accessed December 16, 2018.
  7. ↑ Extract from the 1971/72 winter flight plan, Part 1 , accessed on December 16, 2018.
  8. ↑ Extract of the 1971/72 winter flight plan, part 2 , accessed on December 16, 2018.
  9. ↑ Map of the 1973 summer flight plan , accessed on December 16, 2018.
  10. ↑ Extract of the 1973 summer flight plan , accessed on December 16, 2018.
  11. ^ Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher et al .: jp airline-fleets international . Zurich Airport 1966–1975.
  12. ^ John WR Taylor: Civil Aircraft Markings 1970 . Ian Allan, London 1970, pp. 122, 124.
  13. ↑ Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher: jp-markings-66 . Zurich 1966, p. 10.
  14. ↑ Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher et al .: jp airline-fleets international 1974 . Zurich Airport 1974, p. 51.
  15. ↑ Accident statistics Rousseau Aviation , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 16, 2018.
  16. ^ Accident report North 262 F-BNGB , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 13, 2018.
  17. ↑ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty compendium part 109 (English), December 2008, p. 192.
  18. ^ Accident report North 262 F-BNMO , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 17, 2018.
  19. ↑ Jennifer M. Gradidge: The Douglas DC-1 / DC-2 / DC-3: The First Seventy Years, Volumes One and Two . Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 2006, ISBN 0-85130-332-3 , p. 575.
  20. ^ Accident report DC-3 F-WSGU , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 17, 2018.
  21. ↑ Islander Historians: Islander 2005 . Staines, 2005, p. 77.
  22. ^ Accident report BN-2 F-BTGH , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 17, 2018.
  23. ^ Accident report North 262 F-BLHT , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 17, 2018.
  24. ^ Accident report North 262 F-BNTT , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 17, 2018.