26 June 2019: Roger Beteille, one of the founding fathers of Airbus has passed away on 14 June at the age of 97.
Roger was born in 1921 at Aveyron, France. He completed his studies at Supaero in Toulouse. He then joined SNCASE, which was later known as Sud Aviation. In 1945, he obtained his pilot's licence and later became the flight test engineer in 1952.
In 1967 he was appointed as chief engineer for the A300 programme at Sud Aviation. There was an idea to develop a 300-seater all-new wide-body twinjet but the idea was dropped as the launch customers Lufthansa and Air France wanted a smaller product. Thus he started working secretly on A300B a 250 seater aircraft that would accommodate two standard containers next to each other. The innovative fuselage cross-section that Roger designed is still used on the A330.
In 1970, when the Airbus Industrie grouping of economic interests (GIE) was created, Roger Beteille who was the Senior Vice President of engineering wanted its headquarters to be near the final assembly line in Toulouse, so that potential customers could see the aircraft under construction.
On 28 October 1972, when the A300B made its first flight; Beteille had gained a lot of knowledge and understanding of airlines' needs, which he put to good use during a decade-long campaign to gain customers.
His dream became a reality in March 1984 when he managed to formally launch the A320.