Georges Brian 1912-2004

Georges Brian was born in 1912 and passed his military pilot's licence in July 1931, aged 19. He joined the French Air Force as a fighter pilot at the Ecole d'Istres flying school and was posted to the 35th aviation regiment in Bron, near Lyons. In September 1938, he joined the Ecole de l'Air in Versailles and was then posted to the 1st Group of the 5th fighter Squadron in Reims (1st Detachment).

Shortly after the start of the war, he was posted to the Centre d'Essais de Matériel Aérien (aviation equipment test centre) to conduct tests on the Bloch 153 (an MB152 fitted with Curtiss Pratt&Whitney engines) where he discovered the world of flight trials. It was then that he met Marcel Bloch but as yet had no idea that this man would hire him after the war as a pilot.
After the Armistice, his Group fell back to North Africa. He was then given the responsibility of organising the Rabat fighter school which was later to become the Meknes fighter school.
In 1943, the Americans supplied the GC I/5 with P39 aircraft: Brian then took part in the Campaign in France and Germany until the end of the war.
He was then posted to the CEAM again which he left in October 1946 to follow Rozanoff who had become Director of Dassault aircraft flight trials. In Mérignac, Brian then worked on the MB 303 prototype and was at the controls with Constantin Rozanoff and Jean Dillaire during its maiden flight which took place on 10 February 1947. He also flew the maiden flight of the MD 315 Flamant with them on 6 July 1947. Then with Dillaire, he developed the MD 316 X and MD 316 T prototypes and then the 312 B01. In preparation for the rolling out of the Ouragan, he then saw military service for a short time as a Group Captain at Mont-de-Marsan for jet engine conversion (Vampire) and then took part in developing all the production aircraft up to the SMB2. On 24 July 1956, he flew the maiden flight of the Etendard IV.
Georges Brian finished his career at Dassault as Manager of External Relations for the Bordeaux production plant group.