Fly safe !
Menu
Previous
Next
"Hélice Éclair" T-shirt
€37.00
Tax included
Tax incl.
Garanties sécurité
(à modifier dans le module "Réassurance")
Politique de livraison
(à modifier dans le module "Réassurance")
Politique retours
(à modifier dans le module "Réassurance")
Size
Couleur
T-shirt unisex 100% cotton - Navy
To preserve the colors, wash upside down at 30°C maximum.
T-shirts made in our workshop. If they're no longer in stock, don't worry, we'll make one for you to receive as soon as possible (deadline communicated when order placed).
Clothing Care
Delivery & Returns
The story behind the legend
Once upon a time...
Origins and Context
After coordinating the production of the Caudron G.3, Marcel Bloch (the future Marcel Dassault) was assigned to oversee the flight-test acceptance of Farman aircraft in Buc:
“My role consisted of flying with the pilots and then writing a report on the performance and flight qualities of each aircraft.”
“On this occasion, I made many flights as flight leader in order to check climb times and the maneuverability of each aircraft.”
Whenever he had free time, Marcel Bloch began improving the propeller of the Caudron G.3, whose poor efficiency he had noticed. To build the propeller he was studying and designing, the young engineer thought of his friend Marcel Minckès, whose father was a furniture maker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The latter agreed. Marcel Dassault recalled: “He liked boldness and initiative, so he agreed to put a cabinetmaker and a few walnut boards at my disposal.”
With the means to craft his propeller, Marcel personally supervised its construction:
“I made the drawing of my propeller, I traced the different sections, which allowed the worker to create templates. I stayed beside him while he planed the propeller, guiding his hand toward harmonious lines.”
It was tested in Buc by one of Blériot’s pilots, then presented at the test center of the Technical Service in Villacoublay:
“This propeller was recognized as the best, and the furniture maker who had built it under my direction [Hirch Minckès] received a first order for fifty propellers. The price of each was 150 francs at the time. We had to give our propeller a name, and it became the ‘Éclair’ propeller.”
Production and Operational Use
It was first fitted to the Caudron G.3 aircraft equipped with an 80 hp Clerget engine. This was a good start, all the more so because the Battle of Verdun, raging since February 1916, led to additional orders for aircraft—and therefore for propellers. Marcel Bloch was then assigned to Hirch Minckès’ workshop:
“As I was starting to have too much work, I suggested to Potez that he come work with me. He left the Caudron design office without regret.”
Because production needed to ramp up quickly, Marcel Bloch suggested that Hirch Minckès create a company. Minckès sought advice from several friends, including E. Dumaine, general manager of the Société des moteurs Clerget, who encouraged him to do so. Hirch Minckès and his associate, Edeline, founded the Société des Hélices Éclair, with Marcel Bloch and Henry Potez as technical directors, to whom the army assigned them.
Several carpenters joined their team, while the Clerget company supported their venture by ordering brake-propellers for its test benches. Their business grew, occupying an entire floor of the furniture workshop on Avenue Parmentier, where they formed a separate section. The two friends subcontracted externally the parts requiring machining:
“We had the blades cut outside, we glued them together at his place, and then they had to be shaped. All the furniture makers of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine had started building Éclair propellers.”
Their partnership was a success. The Éclair propellers equipped the British Sopwith reconnaissance aircraft built under license in France, the Dorand AR, and especially the Spads—most notably the Spad VII of the most famous French ace, Georges Guynemer, dear to Marcel Bloch’s heart:
“When Guynemer’s aircraft, Le Vieux Charles, with its nineteen victories, was displayed at the Invalides as a witness to glory, I went to see it, and upon arriving I naturally looked at the propeller. And it was a propeller that I had designed and built. I felt great satisfaction, and perhaps a bit of pride.”
In 1917, success came for the two second lieutenants, whose company in just a few months became one of the four major propeller manufacturers, at a time when no fewer than forty manufacturers and 253 different designs existed. The Materiel Inspection Service decided to keep only three propeller series at most for any given aircraft. Among them was the Éclair propeller. In this way, Marcel Bloch and Henry Potez entered the legend of aviation.
