Marcel Dassault

Marcel Dassault, born Marcel Bloch, (Paris, 22 January 1892 - Neuilly-sur-Seine, 17 April 1986) was a French aircraft industrialist.

After graduating from the lycée Condorcet, Breguet School and Supaero, he invented a type of aircraft propeller used by the French army during World War I and founded the Société des Avions Marcel Bloch aircraft company. Following the nationalization of his company in 1936, under the Front Populaire, he stayed as a director. As a Jew, he was deported to Buchenwald during World War II, refusing collaboration with the German aviation industry. He changed his name from Bloch to Bloch-Dassaut then Dassault in 1949. Dassault was the pseudonym of his brother, General Darius Paul Bloch, in the French resistance and means "for assault", originally from "char d'assaut", French for tank. Marcel Dassault converted to Catholicism in 1950. After the war, Dassault built the foremost military aircraft manufacturer in France, Avions Marcel Dassault. He was succeeded by his son Serge as head of the group. Marcel Dassault was buried in the Passy Cemetery in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.