(France) Air Bleu @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Caudron Simoun Caudron Simoun
    Caudron Simoun
  • Caudron Simoun Caudron Simoun
    Caudron Simoun
  • Didier Daurat Didier Daurat
    Didier Daurat
  • Beppo de Massimi Beppo de Massimi
    Beppo de Massimi
  • Louis Renault Louis Renault
    Louis Renault
  • Caudron C-630 Simoun Caudron C-630 Simoun
    Caudron C-630 Simoun
  • Caudron C.440 Goéland Caudron C.440 Goéland
    Caudron C.440 Goéland
  • Caudron Goéland Caudron Goéland
    Caudron Goéland

Air Bleu

Air Bleu (Société Anonyme Air Bleu) was a French airline that specialised in carrying mail within France between 1935 and 1940. Conceived by Didier Daurat, the former operations director of Aéropostale, and founded by Beppo de Massimi, it linked Paris every day with the main provincial cities using a fleet of Caudron Simoun aircraft. It also opened the first night airmail service in France, in May 1939.

Foundation

After the break-up of Aéropostale and the creation of Air France in 1933, Didier Daurat, who had been left out of the new company, studied the creation of a domestic airmail network. He put the project to his friend Beppo de Massimi, former managing director of the Lignes Latécoère and later of Aéropostale. On 15 January 1935 the Chambre des Députés passed a law on the organisation of the domestic airmail network, and on 1 April an agreement signed between the PTT (French Post Office), the Air Minister, General Denain, and the company being formed granted it the exclusive right to carry airmail within France.

The Société Anonyme Air Bleu was founded on 23 May 1935 with a capital of 5 million French francs. Its shareholders included Louis Renault, one of the initiators of the project, Messageries Hachette and the Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis. The head office was at 6, boulevard des Capucines in Paris. Beppo de Massimi became managing director and Didier Daurat director of operations. The name is said to come from the "petits bleus", the letters written on blue paper that were reserved for express mail. The State subsidised the service, and customers paid a surcharge of 2.50 francs per 10 g, later raised to 3 francs.

The Simoun years (1935-1936)

Air Bleu ordered twelve Caudron C.630 Simouns from Caudron, delivered between May and July 1935, which made it the largest civil operator of the type. This four-seat low-wing monoplane, powered by a 220 hp Renault Bengali Six engine, could carry 200 kg of mail at a cruising speed of 280 km/h, with a range of 1,250 km. The aircraft wore a light blue livery with a silver arrow along the fuselage.

On 10 July 1935, in the presence of Georges Mandel, Minister of the PTT, General Denain, Air Minister, and Louis Renault, four Simouns took off from Le Bourget at three-minute intervals to open the first routes: Paris-Tours-Poitiers-Angoulême-Bordeaux, Paris-Rouen-Le Havre, Paris-Arras-Lille and Paris-Nancy-Strasbourg. On 25 July two more routes followed, Paris-Le Mans-Angers-Nantes and Paris-Bourges-Limoges-Toulouse. Six aircraft left every day in each direction in the late morning, and regularity reached 99% by the end of the year. Seasonal extensions served La Baule and Deauville in the summer. On 7 October 1935 the network was reorganised into three routes running through Paris: Le Havre-Paris-Bordeaux, Lille-Paris-Toulouse and Nantes-Paris-Strasbourg.

On 4 December 1935 pilot Georges Tixier was killed near Tours when his Simoun F-ANRK struck an oak tree and then a wall; his companion Victor Beaufol was seriously injured. Although 592,000 km were flown in 1935, traffic remained very light, as the surcharge put the public off. In 1936 the company also began carrying parcels and added Vichy to its network, but on 3 August 1936 all services were suspended and the aircraft grounded.

The second Air Bleu (1937-1940)

An agreement signed on 1 June 1937 between the French State, the Finance, Air and PTT ministries and Air Bleu revived the company. The new company, formed on 23 July 1937, was 52% owned by the State, 24% by Air France and 24% by the former shareholders. Paul Routy replaced Beppo de Massimi as general manager, while Didier Daurat remained head of operations. As early as 7 July 1937, three routes reopened from Le Bourget: Paris-Bordeaux-Mont-de-Marsan-Pau, Paris-Toulouse-Perpignan and Paris-Clermont-Ferrand-Saint-Étienne-Lyon-Grenoble. With the same number of aircraft and staff as in 1935, Air Bleu now carried nearly 71 tonnes of letters between July and December 1937.

On 16 February 1938 a Marseille-Nice route was opened, connecting with the Air France Paris-Lyon-Marseille service flown with Bloch MB.220s. From 1938 the fleet was joined by five twin-engined Caudron C.440 Goélands and two Potez 630s, former fighter-bombers converted into mail carriers.

The night mail

As the single-engined Simoun was considered unsuitable for night flying, Air Bleu used the Goéland to open the first night airmail service in France on 10 May 1939, between Paris, Bordeaux and Pau, along a fully lit route. Chief pilot Raymond Vanier and radio operator Lucien Pauzié left Le Bourget at 10.45 pm, while Georges Libert and Victor Beaufol took off from Pau in the opposite direction. That night Didier Daurat himself flew to Bordeaux and back.

End of the company

The outbreak of war on 2 September 1939 brought the airmail network to a halt. Air Bleu was militarised and its crews flew, among other things, the mail between Paris and London. After the armistice of June 1940, only the Goélands remained in service. In September 1940 the fleet was transferred to Air France and the company was dissolved. Didier Daurat joined Air France to run its airmail services: with Raymond Vanier he restarted the night mail in 1945, and the idea of a domestic air network that he later championed led to the creation of Air Inter.

Fleet

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