Word: breguets
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...should the Socialist-Communist opposition win the parliamentary election scheduled for next spring. Last week, however, a step toward nationalization came early, from a different direction. The government of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing announced that it was taking a 34% participation in Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation (1976 sales: $1.2 billion) without compensating the company's two owners, Dassault and his 52-year-old son, Serge. The stock transfer will be covered by canceling debts that the company owes the state. Nonchalant, in the family tradition, Serge said: "I don't see what...
...strict sense, of course, Dassault-Breguet will not be fully nationalized. Under French law, however, the government's 34% holding of the stock will enable it to block any major corporate decisions the government does not like. For the time being, at least, Dassault will remain in charge of his empire, including Jours de France, one of the most profitable of French magazines, Château Dassault (a Saint-Émilion vineyard) and a variety of electronics companies. But there does seem to be little doubt that Dassault-Breguet's days as an independent company are numbered...
...later effort to reverse a Dutch decision to buy French Breguet Atlantic patrol planes rather than Lockheed's P-3 Orions, Lockheed offered Prince Bernhard $500,000 in July 1968. The prince, who knew that the Dutch government had already decided to buy the French planes, refused the money. According to the commission report, Lockheed insisted on showing "its appreciation of the prince's honesty by offering him $100,000 just the same." A Swiss bank check for that amount was cashed by a mysterious "Victor Van Baarn" before it too went inexplicably astray...
...choice had seemed likely since January, when the U.S. Air Force ordered 650 F-16s for its own fleet. The fighter handles better than its chief competitors, the Swedish Viggen, built by Saab-Scania, and the Mirage F1-M53, built by the French firm Dassault-Breguet. The F-16 also appealed to the consortium because of the savings that would result from standardizing planes of U.S. and NATO forces...
Foreign policy and strategy aside, for many nations arms exports have been a useful means of keeping their defense industries alive. The increased volume provided by sales abroad improves production efficiency and helps amortize research and development costs. Without its large export market, for instance, France's Dassault-Breguet aircraft company would probably be unable to produce Mirages at a price that the French air force could afford...