Description

The story of the birth and entry into service of Caravelle is all the more remarkable as this French civil aircraft program was born in a country in ruins facing enormous financial difficulties and chronic political instability. It was, however, in this context that the Secretary General for Civil and Commercial Aviation, René Lemaire, decided in October 1951 to launch the study of a medium-haul jet aircraft. the X210 project of the manufacturer SNCASE, which later became SUD-AVIATION.
Very quickly interested in this innovative aircraft, Air France placed its first order eight months after the flight of the prototype. Following the short period of use of the DE HAVILLAND 106 “COMET” four-jet engine, the company then definitively entered the era of the “jet”…
Design and technical innovations by Caravelle, motivation for the choice of the aircraft, implementation in service and network, marketing and communication, crew training and operations, use by sister and associated companies, withdrawal from service and surviving aircraft: the publishers have endeavoured to cover a wide variety of areas in order to fully reflect the richness and the importance of the history of this aircraft in the Air France saga. Illustrated throughout. French text and captions.