Ratier

Ratier-Figeac is an aircraft components manufacturer in Figeac, France.

From 1926 until 1930 it also built a car with a 746 cc overhead camshaft engine.

From 1959 until 1962 Ratier made motorcycles, having taken over the motorcycle business of the Centre d'Études de Moteurs à Explosion et à Combustion (CEMEC). The engines were flat-twins derived from Second World War BMW designs.

History

Ratier was originally a joinery firm. By the outbreak of the first world war, the company was specializing in propeller blades for the aircraft of the French Air Force. Afterwards it produced for the French mail service Aéropostale all the way through its heyday of the 1930s when the service broke many flight records. The factory was originally in Malakoff and then transferred to Montrouge. Much of its workload consisted of the contract work it received from Citroën to produce the Citroenette, a child's pedal-car. Paulin Ratier fabricated a prototype propeller-car which never made it into production.

The company produced a rally-car which went on to win many races, such as the Bol d'or race, during a time when it was raced by cars and motorcycles. The factory at Figeac produced bicycles during World War II. It also produced aircraft parts for the German War machine and in January 1944 the Maquis, along with other French resistance groups, launched a secret attack on the factory and caused considerable damage.[1]

After World War II, France needed motorcycles for police and army forces. The BMW patents and BMW Wehrmacht motorcycles and sidecar combinations were considered legitimate war spoils. The French army started a semiprivate business known as CMR (Centre de Montage et de Réparation) to refurb existing German motorcycles seized partly in France, partly in the French occupied zone of Germany, build a stock of spares and reverse-engineer missing parts.[2]

Timeline

1904 : Ratier was created by the joiner, Paulin Ratier, in order to fabricate wooden plane-propellers.

1914-1918 : War increases demand and production times are tightened. 1917 : Ratier opens a new factory at Figeac in an old saw-mill. Ratier chose Figeac for the abundant wood-supplies in the region, necessary for propeller production.

1919-1929 : After the war, demand falls and Ratier must diversify into other products. Ratier begins to produce toys, electrical appliances and telephones. At the same time, metal propellers come onto the scene and Ratier patents a variable pitch propeller, putting the company among the world's top producers.

1939 : Ratier outfits 90% of the French Air Force, holds 63 world records, 32 foreign licenses, and has branches in Algeria, Switzerland and in Morocco. The company employs 500 persons.

1941 : Aircraft demand plummets and the company resorts to producing bicycles.

1949-1950 : The company experiences a crisis from lack of demand. The workforce falls below 100.

1951-1961 : Exceptional business opportunities allow the company to diversify and multiply its workforce by 10. G. Forest takes over the company and opens a tool-die factory at Capdenac (today's Forest-Line factory), not far from Figeac.

1961 : Momentum builds in propeller production with Transall and l’Atlantic in particular, and Ratier becomes the flight equipment manufacturer for the Caravelle

1968 : Ratier produces propellers and fan-lift engines.

1970 : Ratier begins working with Airbus to fill orders.

External links

• History of CMR, CEMEC and Ratier motorcycles (in French)
• David Burgess Wise, The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles