Turbomeca

Turbomeca is a French manufacturer of low- and medium-power gas turbine turboshaft engines for helicopters. The company also produces gas turbine engines for aircraft and missiles, as well as turbines for land, industrial and marine applications. SNECMA Group acquired the company in September 2001.

History

Turbomeca was founded on August 29, 1938 by Joseph Szydlowski and André Planiol following the granting of their patent application for a supercharger in 1937. Hispano-Suiza ordered a demonstrator to equip its 12 Y engine, used among others on the MS 405 C1.

Turbomeca changed rapidly from an artisanal production to an industrial one benefiting from the politics of re-armament. This is shown by the production figures of the following three years: 18 compressor in 1938, 300 in 1939 and 1200 in 1940. Although the factory at Mézières-sur-Seine was only really operational in June 1940, the government advised the move to the south of France due to the German advance. That month Turbomeca relocated to a newly requisitioned workshop in Saint-Pé-de-Bigorre near the Hispano-Suiza engine factory in Tarbes. The buildings were found to be too small and in 1941 a site was bought in Bordes near Pau. Turbomeca progressively moved into this site between the autumn of 1941 and June 1942. In November 1942, Szydlowski fled to Switzerland. Between October 1942 and 1944, the production stalled and the workforce dropped from about 300 to about 50.