page_title: SNCASO
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: SNCASO / History
caption_attribution_description: SNCASO SO-6000 Triton - Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace - Bourget - France
context_page_description: SNCASO was a French aircraft manufacturer.
  Created during 1936 as one of seven nationalised aeronautical manufacturing companies, SNCASO became a key French aircraft manufacturer following the end of the Second World War. It produced numerous innovation aircraft; amongst the company's more notable projects was the first French jet aircraft, the Sud-Ouest Triton, and the first indigenously-developed French helicopter, the Sud-Ouest Djinn.
  On 1 March 1957, SNCASO merged with another French nationalised aviation company, SNCASE, to form Sud Aviation.
context_section_description: Following the resolution of the 1936 general strike of French heavy industry, the government of Léon Blum introduced an act to nationalize the French war industry. The act provided for the creation of seven nationalised aeronautical manufacturing companies: six for aircraft (SNCASE, SNCASO, SNCAN, SNCAO, SNCAM, SNCAC), and one for aircraft engines (SNCM - Lorraine-Dietrich). In accordance with this agreement, SNCASO was formed on 16 November 1936 from the merger of the factories of Blériot of Suresnes, Bloch of Villacoublay and Courbevoie, SASO (Société Aéronautique du Sud-Ouest) of Bordeaux-Mérignac, UCA (Usine de Construction Aéronautique) of Bordeaux-Bègles, Société Aérienne Bordelaise (SAB) of Bordeaux-Bacalan and Lioré et Olivier of Rochefort. Additionally, SNCASO constructed a new factory in Déols during that same year.
  The company's fortunes, along with that of the wider French nation, were heavily affected by the events of the Second World War, particularly the formation of the occupation of France by German forces. Despite the country's hardship during the conflict, SNCASO continued to operate. During 1941, the Paris design bureaus of both the nationalized and the private aircraft firms were relocated; according to aviation historian Gérard Hartmann, this measure was taken to avoid capture. That same year, SNCASO took over the assets of the ailing SNCAO. The company worked on various projects throughout the war, often under a heavy level of secrecy, including into the new field of jet propulsion. France, akin to the other Allied nations in the war, had benefitted from captured Germany high speed research; these factors combined gave a great impetus to undertaking advanced research projects.
  Amongst the first new aviation projects to be launched in France during the postwar era was SNCASO's jet-powered Sud-Ouest Triton. According to aviation author John W.R. Taylor, the origins of the Triton can be traced back to a clandestine research effort conducted during 1943, headed by the French aeronautics engineer Lucien Servanty. Shortly after the end of the conflict, the new French government issued a requirement, calling for a total of five prototype aircraft to be constructed for testing purposes. The development of indigenously designed jet aircraft was seen as of national importance to the government, being intended to symbolise and embody the speedy recovery of France's industrial and military strength.
  To speed up development of the Triton, which would become the first French jet-powered aircraft to fly, it was decided to use the German-designed Junkers Jumo 004-B2 engine after severe development issues were encountered with the indigenously developed Rateau-Anxionnaz GTS-65 turbojet engine. The British Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine was also adopted for multiple of the prototypes. On 11 November 1946, the first prototype Triton performed its maiden flight. However, further development of the Triton was ultimately abandoned during the early 1950s; it was never use in any operational circumstance. The design had been rendered obsolete by the rapid pace of advancements, both in terms of jet propulsion specifically and wider aerospace capabilities generally, with numerous jet-powered designs being produced around this timeframe.
  SNCASO also branched out into helicopters. It gained useful experiences from the experimental Sud-Ouest Ariel, a tip jet helicopter, that enabled the firm's design team to pursue development of a practical light helicopter that would harness this technology. They designed a compact and lightweight twin-seat rotorcraft, which was promptly designated as the Sud-Ouest Djinn. While this newer design did not share an identical tip jet system to the Ariel, the type did rely upon the same basic concept of feeding compressed air, which was generated by an onboard pump, to the tips of the vehicle's rotor blades to drive the movement of the blades. First flying on January 1953, the Djinn proved itself to be a viable design; after several further prototypes were completed and tested, the type went in
caption: SO.6000 Triton n°3
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:06:14 03:18:50", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3467", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "900"}