Roger Béteille (28 August 1921 – 14 June 2019) was a French aeronautical engineer and businessman who was associated with

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

. Regarded as one of the founding fathers of the company, he is known for his contributions towards Airbus, which contributed towards the airline company's initial success. He also worked for

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

, United, TWA and

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

Early life

Béteille was born in Vors,

Aveyron Aveyron (; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron (river), Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyro ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. After graduating from

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

, he chose the

Corps de l'armement The Corps de l'armement (), or Corps des ingénieurs de l'armement () is a Technical Grand Corps of the French State (''grand corps de l'Etat'' ), aimed at providing the French Armed Forces with all appropriate Military technology, equipment and su ...

and studied at Supaéro and at the Centre des hautes études de l'armement (CHEAr).

Career

In 1952, he joined Sud-Aviation in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

where he held senior posts: Head of Flight Testing (1952 to 1957), Head of Rockets and Satellites division (1957 to 1967) and the deputy technical director and A300 programme manager. He also played a decisive role in the "

Armagnac Armagnac (, ) is a distinctive kind of brandy produced in the Armagnac (region), Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of grapes including Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle blanche and Ugni ...

" and " Caravelle" programmes. He was one of the key players in the formation of the European Airbus consortium. Béteille had spent time listening to airlines such as

and

, as well as visiting U.S. airlines such as United, TWA and

. He also decided that English should be the working language and that measurements should not be metric because most airlines already had American-built aircraft. A large part of the initial success of

can be traced back to Béteille, whose nickname was ''Mister Airbus''.Karl Morgenstern, Jan Schulz, " L'histoire d'Airbus: une équipe européenne, un succès mondial. Ce sont des pionniers, réalistes dans l’action et visionnaires dans la pensée tels que Roger Beteille « Monsieur Airbus », qui ont permis, finalement, de réaliser cette idée européenne de l’aviation. », 26 juillet 2004, dan
Deutschland magazine
His contributions include the "Airbus fuselage" – the 222-in

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

cross section with the ability to carry two LD-3 freight containers – and the basic work-share agreement of the various partners in Airbus. Béteille purchased Super Guppy transport aircraft to bring the pieces of the aircraft to its final assembly point in Toulouse. He long served as the company's

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

and was regarded as one of the founding fathers, along with Henri Ziegler and Felix Kracht. In 1983, he became a founding member of the French

Académie de l'air et de l'espace An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the g ...

(AAE). He retired in March 1984.

Personal life

Béteille was awarded the

Ludwig Prandtl Ring The Ludwig Prandtl Ring is the highest award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics), awarded "for outstanding contribution in the field of aerospace engineering". The award is named ...

from the

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR; ) is a German Council of European Aerospace Societies, aerospace society. It was founded in 1912 under the name of ''Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Flugtechnik'' (WGF). It is the second ...

(German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics) in 1986. The Final Assembly Building for the

Airbus A350 The Airbus A350 is a flight length, long-range, wide-body twin-engine airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The initial A350 design proposed in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the Airbu ...

is named after him. Béteille was married to opera singer Josette Jasmin and the two lived in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

and on the Midi. He died on 14 June 2019, at age 97.

Tribute

In tribute for his involvement within the Airbus Group, the

A350XWB A35 or A-35 may refer to: * A-35 anti-ballistic missile system, a system deployed around Moscow, currently upgraded to the A-135 system * Aero A.35, a Czech airliner of the 1930s * Archambault A35, a French sailboat design * Archambault A35R, a Fren ...

assembly plant in

was named after him.

References

External links

French Air & Space Academy, Roger Béteille

Airbus webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beteille, Roger 1921 births 2019 deaths Aérospatiale Airbus people French aviation pioneers French chief operating officers Corps de l'armement École Polytechnique alumni French aerospace engineers French chief executives Ludwig-Prandtl-Ring recipients Sud Aviation Supaéro alumni Commanders of the Legion of Honour Grand Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite