Tag: death
Saint-Cloud, France, March 8, 2021 – It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Olivier Dassault, at the age of 69, in a helicopter accident on 7 March 2021. An aviation enthusiast, like his grandfather Marcel Dassault and his father Serge Dassault, he was always keenly interested in developing the business of our company. He was born on 1 June 1951 in Boulogne-Billancourt. He was an engineering graduate from the Ecole de l’Air, held a DEA diploma in Mathematical Decision Sciences and a Doctorate in management computing.
He was born on 1 June 1951 in Boulogne-Billancourt. He was an engineering graduate from the Ecole de l’Air, held a DEA diploma in Mathematical Decision Sciences and a Doctorate in management computing. Following his solid scientific training, Olivier Dassault’s first steps in professional life helped him to gain experience of the communication sector, notably as a film producer and then by creating his own advertising agency.
He was a professional pilot since 1975, and jointly held world speed records – with Hervé Le Prince-Ringuet in 1977 from New York to Paris on a Falcon 50 and in 1987 from New Orleans to Paris on a Falcon 900 – and with Guy Mitaux-Maurouard and Patrick Experton in 1996 on a Falcon 900EX from Paris to Abu Dhabi and Paris to Singapore.
In 1986, his father Serge Dassault entrusted him with a number of roles and responsibilities within the Dassault company, appointing him Deputy Vice-President for Europe Falcon Service, and then Vice-President of Civil Aircraft Strategy in 1993.
He was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Marcel Dassault industrial group (GIMD) until 2017 and Director at Dassault Aviation since 1996. Throughout his life, he was a determined defender of our company and of French aeronautics. Moreover, on Thursday, March 4, 2021, during the last Board of Directors meeting, he gave his full support to the company in its management of the covid 19 crisis.
He was also a media man, holding the position of Chairman of the Valmonde group, where he created the hunting magazine Jours de Chasse (2000) devoted to another of his passions. He became a Director of Socpresse (now Groupe Figaro) after the latter was bought out by GIMD in 2004.
While continuing to be professionally active, he entered politics. He was elected as a Member of Parliament (RPR party) in 1988, winning back the Oise first district during the parliamentary by-elections. He was an MP in the Oise department from 1988 to 1997, and then again since 2002.
An artist at heart, Olivier Dassault was an accomplished musician and notably composed the anthem for Parliament, showing this institution another side of his creative personality. He was also a well-known photographer. He published many books of photographs and regularly exhibited his work successfully, in France and abroad.
- Textron, Gulfstream no longer attending
- Organisers expect reduction in exhibitors, visitors
- South Korea’s air force reviewing participation
By Jamie Freed and Allison Lampert
SYDNEY/MONTREAL, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Some aerospace companies including business jet manufacturers Textron Inc and General Dynamics Corp’s Gulfstream division said they no longer planned to attend the Singapore Airshow due to the new coronavirus epidemic.
The trade portion of Asia’s biggest airshow, held every two years, is set to begin on Feb. 11 under the shadow of the fast-spreading virus that has prompted Singapore to deny entry to any non-resident with a recent history of travel to China, where the virus originated.
The death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 361 in China, bringing the number of confirmed infections to 17,205 in the country. The flu-like virus, which can be transmitted from person to person, has spread to more than two dozen other nations and regions.
Experia Events, the organiser of the Singapore Airshow, said last week the show would continue as planned, but the government measures meant it would “undoubtedly see a reduction in terms of the number of expected exhibitors and visitors this year”.
The organiser said there would be doctors and medics on standby to attend to visitors who were feeling unwell.
In 2018, there were 54,000 trade attendees from 147 countries and 1,062 participating companies who come to network, examine products and sign deals covering commercial aviation, defence, maintenance and repair operations and business jets.
Typically, it is not a major show for commercial plane orders but talks during the show can set the stage for deals that are completed later in the year.
Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin Corp , among the biggest exhibitors, said they still planned to attend the show.
Textron and Gulfstream said their decision to not attend was a precautionary measure to protect the health of employees.
Russian aerospace group Rostec plans to send a reduced delegation to the show, Russian media reported. Rostec did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
A spokesman for South Korea’s Air Force said on Monday it was reviewing whether to participate in the Singapore Airshow, but it had not made a final decision.
The deputy administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Li Jian, is no longer listed as a speaker at a pre-show leadership conference on Feb. 10.
Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), which is developing the C919 narrowbody jet, had been due to attend the show before the travel ban was announced.
COMAC did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney and Allison Lampert in Montreal; additional reporting by Anshuman Daga in Singapore, Joyce Lee in Seoul and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
President Trump accused Iranian general Qassem Soleimani of planning “imminent and sinister attacks” Friday in his first televised remarks since the deadly airstrike that killed the general at Baghdad’s international airport.
“We took action last night to stop a war,” Trump said during brief remarks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “We did not take action to start a war.”
Without divulging details about what led to the early morning airstrike that killed Soleimani and nine others, the president said the United States “caught” the general “in the act and terminated him.”
“Soleimani made the death of innocent people his sick passion,” Trump added, saying that “what the U.S. did yesterday should have been done long ago.”
The killing of Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Tehran, which has careened from one crisis to another since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.
Senior State Department officials described the killing as a defensive strike supported by solid intelligence and claimed Soleimani was planning imminent attacks against United States interests and personnel in the region.
PARIS, Oct 7 (Reuters) – France’s Dassault Aviation and Europe’s Airbus have stepped up pressure on France and Germany to agree on the next stage of a planned fighter project, warning Europe’s arms industry and long-term security could suffer from delays.
The two companies are the leading industrial partners in a project to build a futuristic swarm of manned and unmanned warplanes, announced by the leaders of France and Germany two years ago and expanded earlier this year to include Spain.
Dassault and Airbus won a 65-million-euro contract in January to develop the concept for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) but await a new contract to build demonstrators for interlinked fighters, drones and an “air combat cloud” by 2026.
Dassault Aviation Chief Executive Eric Trappier told a conference of policymakers last month that the demonstrator contract should have been launched in September but this was now slipping towards end-year. He called it “indispensable” to avoid any further delays in order to maintain the 2026 deadline.
No reason has been given for the delays.
On Monday evening, Dassault and Airbus amplified those warnings with a joint statement.
“If Europe does not move forward — and move forward quickly — on this programme, it will be impossible to maintain the development and production capabilities needed for a sovereign defence industry,” the companies said.
The warplane system is expected to be operational from 2040, with a view to replacing Dassault’s Rafale and the four-nation Eurofighter, in which Airbus represents both Germany and Spain.
The new project faces competition from Britain and its plans for a new combat jet dubbed “Tempest”.
The fighter developments have split the current Eurofighter consortium and led to a shake-up of industrial alliances as Italy joins Eurofighter partner Britain on Tempest, turning its back on Germany and Spain, while Sweden has opened the door to abandoning its independent stance by co-operating on Tempest.
The FCAS is also overshadowed by differences between France and Germany over export policy after Germany imposed a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia over the death of killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi a year ago by Saudi operatives.
The ban, recently extended to March, has raised questions over a long-delayed Saudi border systems contract run by Airbus.
Airbus Defence and Space Chief Executive Dirk Hoke called in a magazine interview last week for the export ban to be relaxed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has said there is no reason for the moratorium to be lifted.
France and Germany are expected to discuss the issue at ministerial meetings this week.
AIRBUS SETBACK IN SPAIN
Airbus meanwhile faces a battle to shore up its position as a top defence contractor in Spain after losing its place as the representative of Spain’s interests on the upcoming fighter project to local defence electronics firm Indra Sistemas.
Spain last month named Indra as contractor for the Spanish share of the Franco-German-led FCAS project, displacing Airbus from the Spanish coordinator role it had held on Eurofighter.
Airbus officials have pledged to try to overturn the move but a Spanish defence source told Reuters there was no change in the decision.
Indra declined to comment.
Publicly, Airbus has said it was surprised by the decision but has pledged to continue to defend Spain’s best interests.
Dassault will meanwhile mark a long-awaited milestone on Tuesday when it delivers the first of 36 Rafales to India, the culmination of a fighter procurement process that lasted almost 20 years and involved the cancellation of a much larger deal.
La Tribune reported on Monday that France and India were discussing a possible repeat order for 36 more Rafales.
(Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo Gonzalez in Madrid, Tassilo Hummel in Berlin, Editing by Deepa Babington)
