Roger Béteille (28 August 1921 – 14 June 2019) was a French aeronautical engineer and businessman. Regarded as one of the founding fathers of the company, he is known for his contributions towards

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

, which contributed towards the airline company's initial success. He also worked for

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...

, United, TWA and

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

Early life

Béteille was born in Vors,

Aveyron Aveyron (; oc, Avairon; ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyronnais'' (masculine) or ''Aveyronnaises'' (feminine) in French. The inhabitan ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. After graduating from

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, he chose the Corps de l'armement 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 ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...

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 in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of grapes including Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle blanche and Ugni blanc, traditionally ...

" 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. Roger Béteille 1972

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 ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

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 Super may refer to: Computing * SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter / player * Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages * Super key (keyboard butt ...

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 or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

and was regarded as one of the founding fathers, along with

Henri Ziegler Henri Ziegler CVO, CBE (18 November 1906 in Limoges – 24 July 1998, in Paris) was one of the founders of Airbus and its first president. Life and legacy An engineer, graduate of the École Polytechnique and of "Sup'Aéro" (the national ...

and

Felix Kracht Felix Kracht (born 13 May 1912 in Krefeld; died 3 October 2002 in Weyhe) was a German engineer. After graduating from the Technical University of Aachen, he put his theoretical knowledge into practice at the aeronautical association Flugwissensc ...

. In 1983, he became a founding member of the French Académie de l'air et de l'espace (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; german: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V.) is a German aerospace society. It was founded in 1912 under the name of ''Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für ...

(German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics) in 1986. The Final Assembly Building for the Airbus A350 in

is named after him. Béteille was married to opera singer

Josette Jasmin Josette is a feminine given name. It may refer to: * Josette Abondio (born 1949), Ivorian teacher, writer and playwright * Josette Amouretti (born 1914), French former tennis player * Josette Altmann Borbón (born 1958), Costa Rican historian, p ...

and the two lived in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...

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 F ...

assembly plant in

was named after him.https://www.ouest-france.fr/economie/entreprises/airbus/le-pere-fondateur-d-airbus-roger-beteille-est-mort-l-age-de-97-ans-6411641

References

External links

French Air & Space Academy, Roger Béteille

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