The thirties: faster, higher, farther

Aviation expanded considerably in the 1930s. The public was becoming more familiar with air travel, and the nascent airline industry demanded increasingly powerful engines. Carriers were opening new routes, including flights via the North and South Atlantic, trans-Pacific and across Africa. Aviators from Lindbergh to Costes and Mermoz were making front-page flights that emblazoned their names in the history of aviation.

In an article published in the French daily “Le Petit Parisien” on October 5, 1927, General Billy Mitchell, often called the father of U.S. military aviation, said: “Technically speaking, the French aviation industry is easily the world leader. Your engines are the best, and so are your airframes. As for your pilots, they are unrivaled in terms of intelligence, courage and professionalism. I know them very well, and they always astonish me.”

In 1933, French politicians reshaped the domestic aviation industry by grouping all private airlines into a single national flag carrier: Air France.

Aircraft engine-makers supported the efforts of constructors and aviators by working on engines that would exceed the magic mark of 500 horsepower. The race for more and more power would lead to the development by Gnome et Rhône in 1929 of the two-row Mistral Major, first of the brand-new K series.

Hispano-Suiza, meanwhile, was developing its series of V-12 liquid-cooled engines, rated at more than 600 shaft horsepower. This was the engine that powered Costes and Lebris' Bréguet-Hispano to the first direct crossing of the South Atlantic, in 1927. And using this same engine, in 1929 Assolant, Lefèvre and Lotti tipped their hats to Lindbergh by crossing the Atlantic from Europe to America, on a Bernard airplane called the "Oiseau-Canari" (Canary Bird). On May 12 and 13, 1930, this engine powered a Latécoère 28, with Mermoz, Dabry and Gimie at the controls, from Saint-Louis in Senegal to Natal in Brazil, covering 3,400 kilometers in 21 hours.

Rising to this masculine distance record, Maryse Hilsz set the woman's altitude record. On June 22, 1936, she took off from Villacoublay near Paris in her Potez 506 biplane and climbed to 14,310 meters (almost 47,000 ft) in 36 minutes. Her plane was powered by a 770-hp 14Krsd engine, driving a Gnome et Rhône three-bladed propeller, and was equipped with a landing gear produced by the firm Messier, founded by Georges Messier in 1933.

A race for power: the K, M and R series

The K series of radial engines, built at the Avenue Kellermann plant in Paris, were made smaller, but with larger cooling surfaces. The 14K Mistral Major continued to increase power output from 1931 to 1933, reaching 1,100 hp for a weight of 578 kilos. Over 70 different civil and military aircraft around the world would be powered by K series engines.

But the race for higher power was never ending, and Gnome et Rhône launched a line of 14-cylinder two-row radial engines. The 1,135-hp 14N took over in 1936, and would power about 50 different aircraft types, including the Amiot, Bréguet and Dewoitine. It would also equip the twin-engine Marcel Bloch 220/221 (predecessor company to Dassault Aviation), that French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier would use for his historic trips to London and Munich several years later.

In 1937, most French defense companies were nationalized. Gnome et Rhône was not part of it , but the state acquired a symbolic stake in the company. That same year Gnome et Rhône produced the 14M, which weighed 420 kg and developed 720 horsepower. This engine would be built under license in the USSR from 1939 to 1943, at the Molotov plant - and it would be designated the M88, now the name of the Snecma engine powering the Rafale fighter!

In 1938, the year when Joseph Szydlowski founded Turbomeca, Gnome et Rhône was taking an active role in the rearmament of France's air force, and also acquired the aircraft manufacturer Voisin. Aero-engines continued to increase their power output, and both Gnome et Rhône and Hispano-Suiza offered production engines developing more than 1,000 horsepower.
Just before the outbreak of the war, Gnome et Rhône rolled out a real monster: the 14R, which developed 1,300 horsepower and weighed only 820 kilos.

At the dawn of the second world war, the French aviation industry was relatively prosperous, thanks to dynamic technological development and the sale of production licenses abroad.