Roger Béteille

Career

In 1952, he joined Sud-Aviation in Toulouse where he held senior posts: Head of Flight Testing (1952 to 1957), Head of Rockets and Satellites division (1957 to 1967) and the deputy technical director and A300 programme manager. He also played a decisive role in the "Armagnac" and "Caravelle" programmes.

He was one of the key players in the formation of the European Airbus consortium. Béteille had spent time listening to airlines such as Air France and Lufthansa, as well as visiting U.S. airlines such as United, TWA and American Airlines. He also decided that English should be the working language and that measurements should not be metric because most airlines already had American-built aircraft.

A large part of the initial success of Airbus can be traced back to Béteille, whose nickname was Mister Airbus. His contributions include the "Airbus fuselage" – the 222-in fuselage cross section with the ability to carry two LD-3 freight containers – and the basic work-share agreement of the various partners in Airbus.

Béteille purchased Super Guppy transport aircraft to bring the pieces of the aircraft to its final assembly point in Toulouse. He long served as the company's chief operating officer and was regarded as one of the founding fathers, along with Henri Ziegler and Felix Kracht.

In 1983, he became a founding member of the French Académie de l'air et de l'espace (AAE). He retired in March 1984.

Personal life

Béteille was awarded the Ludwig Prandtl Ring from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics) in 1986. The Final Assembly Building for the Airbus A350 in Toulouse is named after him.

Béteille was married to opera singer Josette Jasmin and the two lived in Cannes and on the Midi.

He died on 14 June 2019, at age 97.

Tribute

In tribute for his involvement within the Airbus Group, the A350XWB assembly plant in Toulouse was named after him.