Centrair was a French
glider
Glider may refer to:
Aircraft and transport Aircraft
* Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight
** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...
manufacturer that was founded by Marc Ranjon and his wife Genevieve in 1970.
[Taylor, J.W.R. 1987, p.731] It started as the agent for glider manufacturer
Alexander Schleicher GmbH & Co
Alexander Schleicher GmbH & Co is a major manufacturer of sailplanes located in Poppenhausen, near Fulda in Germany.
It is also the oldest sailplane manufacturer in the world.
History
The company was founded in 1927 by Alexander Schleicher u ...
, but it manufactured Schleicher's
ASW 20 under licence from 1977.
Later, Centrair also manufactured the
Scheibe SF 34
__NOTOC__
The Scheibe SF 34 ''Delphin'' (German: "dolphin") is a two-seat sailplane that was produced by Scheibe in Germany in the late 1970s and 1980s. Designed by Wolf Hoffmann and originally designated the SF H34, it was Scheibe's first ...
as the Centrair SNC-34 Alliance.
Ranjon decided to build a new
Standard Class sailplane with a wing thinner than the
ASW 19 using the ASW 20 fuselage. The result was the
C101 Pegase which first flew in 1981. Schleichers were not happy that their agent was in competition with them using their fuselage design, but the dispute was settled. Three hundred Pegases were made before production stopped in 1988. They were never competitive with the best in the Standard Class, but are popular "club" aircraft, being easy to handle.
In 1980, Centrair conducted design work on a six-seat, powered, business aircraft with a pusher propeller behind the tail. This work was conducted in collaboration with
Dassault
Dassault Group (; also GIM Dassault or Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault SAS) is a French group of companies established in 1929 with the creation of Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (now Dassault Aviation) by Marcel Dassault, and led by son Ser ...
and a number of technical schools.
In the 1980s the French gliding authorities were anxious that there should be an indigenous two-seater to replace the 250 ageing trainers in France. The
C201 Marianne was the result, flying in 1985. Eighty were built before the Centrair Company dissolved.
[Simons 2005, pp.37,39]
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Centrair
Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France