Marcel Dassault

Marcel Dassault, born Marcel Ferdinand Bloch in Paris in 1892, was a French engineer and industrialist who spent his career in aircraft manufacturing. During the First World War he worked at the aeronautics research laboratory at Chalais-Meudon and invented a propeller used by the French army, and in 1916 he formed the Société d'Études Aéronautiques with Henry Potez and Louis Coroller. In 1928 he founded the aircraft company Société des Avions Marcel Bloch. He refused to collaborate with the German occupiers and was deported to Buchenwald in 1944. After the war he took the name Dassault, acquired Breguet Aviation in 1971, and also sat in both houses of the French Parliament between 1951 and 1986. His aviation division was later renamed Dassault Aviation.