Michel Retif, Turcat Andre, Henri Perrier and Jacques Guignard were the first Concorde team
André Turcat, the first aviator to have scrambled Concorde March 2, 1969, died Monday night at age 94 at his home in the region of Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), d According to people close to her family. Pilot testing of the first flight of the prototype of the famous unit 001, André Turcat was also at the helm when the Concorde had crossed for the first time the sound barrier on 1 October 1969.
Nicknamed “the Great Turk” by his colleagues, the pioneer of modern aircraft had made a specialty of break records, including becoming in 1954 onboard the experimental aircraft “Gerfaut I”, the first European pilot to cross the sound barrier in level flight. He also had the privilege of receiving the hand of Jacques Chirac the insignia of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour June 27, 2005.
Born October 23, 1921 in Marseille (Bouche du Rhone) in a family of automakers, André Turcat fate of the Ecole Polytechnique in 1942. Air Force officer, licensed pilot in 1947, he finds himself chief of operations in Indochina. Appointed in 1952 director of the School of the Air Force test flight personnel, he joined the following year as chief test driver at SFECMAS soon absorbed by Nord Aviation. That’s when he developed the famous “Gerfaut” and the “Griffon”.
A Sud Aviation (now Aerospace and EADS) from 1964 until his retirement in 1976, he became director of flight test “Concorde”. Holder of more than 6000 hours of flight, convinced Gaullist had served as advisor on industrial affairs and advanced technologies to the General Secretariat of the RPR. Deputy Mayor of Toulouse from 1971 to 1977, he was also a Member of Parliament from 1980 to 1981. Married and father of three, André Turcat had related the adventure of the Concorde in several books, including “Concorde, testing and battles” and also wrote his memoirs, entitled “Test Pilot”.
Paris Match (via Google Translate)
