A design and test engineer and a great pioneer of the Falcon family, René Lemaire was head of the Falcon series design office at Mérignac.
After studying at ESTACA and EPNER to become a flight test engineer, he joined the SNCASO design office in 1947. He then became one of the flight test engineers for the Vautour prototypes.
Hired by Dassault in 1959 as a flight test engineer for the MD 410 Spirale and MD 415 Communauté, he became head of the design department for the Mystère 20 in 1961. He was responsible for the test flights of the Mystère-Falcon 20 in 1963, then for the Mystère-Falcon 10, and was appointed head of the design department for the Falcon series in Mérignac in 1975, a position he held until his retirement in 1993.
René Lemaire was present during the visit from the delegation of Pan American Airways, on May 4, 1963, when Charles Lindbergh chose the Mystère 20.
He accompanied Jacqueline Auriol on her flights in the Mystère 20 that allowed her to set female world speed records in the category for aircraft of eight to twelve tons over 1,000 and 2,000 km, on June 10, 1965.
He was the first President of the Conservatoire de l’Air et de l’Espace d’Aquitaine (1987) and President of the aeronautical group La Mémoire de Bordeaux (1998). René Lemaire died on 17 November 2020. He was 92 years old.
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