Georges Abrial

Georges Abrial
Born 1898
Paris
Died 1970
Vauville, Manche
Alma mater St Cyr Aeronautical Institute

Engineering career

Engineering discipline aerodynamics
Employer(s) Pierre Levasseur (aircraft builder)

Georges Abrial (1898, Paris – 1970, Vauville, Manche) was an early French aerodynamicist.

Life

After graduating from the St Cyr Aeronautical Institute he worked for Levasseur (Levasseur-Abrial A-1) and did some pioneering work into tailless aircraft. He designed several gliders during the 1920s before turning to lecturing the following decade, when he also became influential in the French soaring movement.

Abrial stopped designing new aircraft after 1932 when he abandoned his A-12 project. He was more attracted by instructorship and educational methods and played an important role in the development of soaring in France during the 1930s. After World War II, he was still active in promoting soaring in France and in French Africa.

In 1954 he came back to the design of tailless aircraft, with the A-13 "Buse" project. But this glider was never built.

Aircraft designs