Dassault Aviation pays tribute to Serge Dassault

Dassault Aviation pays tribute to Serge Dassault

(Saint-Cloud, France, 29 May 2018)

Aircraft was his passion.

Serge Dassault-the son of Marcel Dassault and Madeleine Minklès-was born in Paris on 4 April 1925. He had married Nicole Raffel in 1951 and was the father of four children Olivier, Laurent, Thierry and Marie-Hélène.

Serge Dassault's adult life began dramatically when, in early 1944, he was imprisoned by the Gestapo with his parents and his brother at Montluc near Lyon, and then at Drancy, from where prisoners were shipped to the death camps. The Nazis thought they could thus force his father Marcel Dassault to place his aircraft designer skills at the service of the Third Reich. Marcel Dassault refused and was deported to Buchenwald in August 1944, from where he miraculously returned in May 1945. Of this tragic experience, Serge has always kept an attention to the human person, and to national sovereignty.

Having graduated from the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique, Serge Dassault joined the design office at Générale Aéronautique Marcel Dassault in 1951. He became manager of the flight test department in 1955 and, as such, developed a large number of military aircraft (Super Mystère B2, Étendard, Mirage III and Mirage IV). Then, appointed Head of Export, he led the negotiations that resulted in the sale of Mirage III aircraft to Switzerland and Australia. Serge Dassault also launched the Mystère 20 (now Falcon jet) sales campaign in the United States.

In 1963, he took over the senior management of the company Électronique Marcel Dassault^[1], where he was appointed Chief Executive Officer on 10 October 1967. He held this position until 23 December 1986.

From 29 October 1986 to 4 April 2000, Serge Dassault has been Chairman and CEO of the company Avions Marcel Dassault - Breguet Aviation (which became Dassault Aviation in 1990) before becoming its Honorary Chairman. Since 2 December 1987, Serge Dassault had also been Chairman and CEO of Dassault Industries, which became the Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault on 1 January 2000.

Under his leadership, Dassault Aviation consistently developed and implemented a policy aimed at adapting to new market realities. He led the Company to rise to the challenges of the 21^st century. Under his terms emerged innovative aircraft meeting the new customers' requirements, notably the modernized Super-Étendard, the Mirage 2000-5, the Mirage 2000D and Rafale for combat aircraft, and the Falcon 2000, the Falcon 900EX, the Falcon 50EX, the Falcon900C and multi-mission Falcons with the Falcon family of business jets.