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Welcome to the new BARNSTORMER.FR website "FLY SAFE"
Design, knitting, screen printing, assembly, box... entirely made by us in France. 100% cotton.
COLOR: NAVY BLUE
T-shirts made in our workshop in Paris. If they are no longer in stock, rest assured, we will make one so that you receive it as quickly as possible (deadline communicated following the order placed).
T-shirt Hélice Éclair - Dassault Aviation
€54.00
Tax included
Design, knitting, screen printing, assembly, box... entirely made by us in France. 100% cotton.
COLOR: NAVY BLUE
T-shirts made in our workshop in Paris. If they are no longer in stock, rest assured, we will make one so that you receive it as quickly as possible (deadline communicated following the order placed).
Livraison et retour
Guide des tailles
Le T-Shirt "Helice Eclair" rend hommage au génie de Marcel Dassault, qui dès 1915 su concevoir une hélice dotée d'un rendement exceptionnel pour l’époque. Rapidement les Hélices Éclair équipèrent bon nombre d'Aéronefs du Sopwith britannique au Dorand AR en passant par les redoutables Spad.
Origins and context
After coordinating the manufacture of the Caudron G 3, Marcel Bloch (the future Marcel Dassault) was assigned to take over the flight tests of the Farman aircraft in Buc:
"My role was to fly with the pilots and then report on the performance and flight qualities of each aircraft."
"On that occasion, I flew many flights as a captain to check the climb times and handling of each aircraft."
As soon as he had free time, Marcel Bloch set about improving the propeller of the Caudron G 3, which he had noticed to be mediocre. To build the propeller he studied and designed, the young engineer thought of his friend Marcel Minckès, whose father was a furniture manufacturer in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The latter agrees. Marcel Dassault recalled: "He liked people to be bold and enterprising, so he agreed to put at my disposal a cabinetmaker and a few walnut planks."
Having the means to make his propeller, Marcel personally supervised its manufacture: "I drew my propeller, I traced the different sections, which allowed the worker to make templates. I stood beside him while he planed his propeller, so as to lead his hand to harmonious lines. »
It was tested at Buc, by one of Blériot's pilots, then presented to the Technical Service's test centre in Villacoublay: "This propeller was recognised as the best and the furniture manufacturer who had built it under my direction [Hirch Minckès] received an initial order for fifty propellers. The price of each of them was 150 francs at the time. We had to give our propeller a name, and it was the "Éclair" propeller.
Copyright Dassault Aviation HELICE ECLAIR™ is a registered trademark of Dassault Aviation - Barnstormer is licensed with Dassault Aviation ®
Production & Operational Use
It was first fitted to the Caudron G 3 with an 80 hp Clerget engine. This was a good start, especially since the Battle of Verdun, which had been raging since February 1916, led to additional orders for aircraft and propellers. Marcel Bloch was then seconded to Hirch Minces: "Starting to have too much work, I asked Potez to come and work with me. He left Caudron's design office without regret. »
As production had to be carried out quickly, Marcel Bloch suggested to Hirch Minckès that he set up a company. The latter consulted several of his friends, including E. Dumaine, general manager of the Société des moteurs Clerget, who encouraged him in this direction. Hirch Minckès and his associate, Edeline, set up the Société des Hélices Éclair, of which Marcel Bloch and Henry Potez were technical directors and to which the army detached them.
Several carpenters came to reinforce their team, while the Clerget company encouraged their business by placing orders for propeller-brakes for its test benches. Their business grew and occupied an entire floor of the furniture factory on Avenue Parmentier, of which they formed a separate section. The two friends subcontract the elements that need to be machined externally: "We had the blades cut on the outside, glued them at his house and then had to have them de-billied. All the furniture manufacturers in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine had begun to build Éclair propellers. »
Their association is a success. The Éclair propellers equip the British reconnaissance Sopwith built under license in France, the Dorand AR and especially the Spad, in particular the Spad VII of the most famous French ace, Georges Guynemer, dear to the heart of Marcel Bloch: "When Guynemer's plane, "Le Vieux Charles" with nineteen victories, was presented at the Invalides as a witness of glory, I went to see him and when I arrived I saw, of course, the propeller. Now it was a propeller that I had studied and built. I felt great satisfaction and perhaps a little pride. »
In 1917, it was a success for the two second lieutenants, and in a few months the Company became one of the four major propeller manufacturers, while there were no less than forty manufacturers and two hundred and fifty-three different series. The Material Inspectorate decided to retain a maximum of three sets of propellers for an aircraft. Among them is the Éclair propeller. Marcel Bloch and Henry Potez thus became aviation legends.