Tony Buttler reveals the outcome of one French company’s daring attempt to break into the world of delta-winged jet aircraft – Nord-Aviation’s Gerfaut
As a result of German occupation during World War Two, the French aircraft industry fell well behind the likes of Britain and the US. Despite this, during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, France produced a long series of state-sponsored prototype and research aeroplanes during a resurgence.
Often exotic looking, one such example was the remarkable single-seat Nord 1402 Gerfaut (which translates in English to Gyrfalcon – the largest of the falcon bird family), which was designed and built to examine the aerodynamics and behaviour of the delta wing at high speeds during the early 1950s.
The brainchild of Nord-Aviation’s respected aeronautical engineer Jean Galtier, the Gerfaut followed in the footsteps of an earlier research programme: the experimental air-launched supersonic Arsenal Ars 2301 glider, a full-scale model of a proposed rocket-powered fighter. The sole Ars 2301 first flew in November 1951 with a swept wing configuration, but by 1953 it had gained a very thin delta wing. This is often regarded as the first step in the prog…
