- Henri Ziegler
Henri Ziegler (
18 November 1906 inLimoges –24 July 1998 inParis ) was one of the founders ofAirbus and its first president.A Polytechnic engineer and graduate of “Sup’Aéro” (the national aerospace engineering school) as well as a French air force officer and test pilot, he was a founding father of
Airbus Industrie (along withRoger Béteille andFelix Kracht ) and became its first CEO. He was the driving force behind the development of theAirbus A300 B, the original aircraft that started Airbus on its road to global success by obtaining French government backing for the programme in 1969.Following his appointment as assistant director of the Centre d’Essais en Vol (government flight test centre) in 1938, he fought for the
French Resistance during theSecond World War . In 1944 he was made commander of theFree French air forces in London, going on to become chief of staff of the French Forces of the Interior underGeneral Koenig .While acting as a special representative of the French government in Britain and the United States, Henri Ziegler was also managing director of
Air France from 1946 to 1954. In subsequent years he was the founder ofAir Alpes , a member of several cabinet ministries, president of Avions Breguet; president ofSud Aviation (1968), leader of the Franco-British supersonic airliner projectConcorde , and president and CEO (1970-1973) of SNIAS (Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale), which was renamedAerospatiale in 1984. From 1971 to 1973, he was also managing director of the French Aerospace industries trade organisation (Usias), retiring from Airbus in 1975. He was the father of Bernard Ziegler, the former Airbus Director of Engineering.“There would be no Airbus without Henri Ziegler,” Airbus CEO
Gustav Humbert declared on 11 April 2006 at the dedication of the new Airbus delivery centre inToulouse named in his honour.External links
* [http://www.airbus.fr Airbus webpage]
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