Official French Government prototype & production aircraft acquisition (1922-1924)

[Stargazer]

Founded on January 1, 1869, the Journal Officiel de la République Française is the official publication for parliamentary reports, treaties, laws, decrees, regulations and many other things. Here is an excerpt of the JORF publication regarding the August 27, 1924 session of the French House of Deputies (a rough equivalent to the British House of Commons or the U.S. House of Representatives), during which a report was presented by Mr. Henry-Paté on behalf of the finance commission in charge of examining the proposal of law fixating the general budget for the year 1925. An entire section was devoted to Aeronautics and Aerial Transport, and it is very interesting because it not only lists in detail the principal state contracts for prototypes and series aircraft for the 1922-1924 period, but also provides conclusions as to whether the aircraft were successful or not and why.


As a preamble, we are presented with the precise questionnaire submitted by the House to the evaluating parties, which required from them to:

1. List the prototype contracts established in 1922-1923-1924, indicating for each:
   a) the name of the manufacturer,
   b) the aircraft's characteristics,
   c) its presumed eventual destination,
   d) the total price paid to the manufacturer,
   e) the performance achieved.
   
   They were also asked to indicate if the material purchased had resulted in any order for several machines, whether production or not, and in the case of aircraft, to indicate if they had flown or not. If no further orders had been made, reasons had to be given.
   
   
2. Provide a similar list for the production contracts established in that same period, and indicate if those production machines had been thoroughly successful or had to undergo modifications, in which case the contracts pertaining to those modifications had to be specified.

Here is the list of prototype contracts, presented in four columns as follows: Contract number; Suppliers; Nature of supply & machine type; Results





Then came the list of production contracts, divided in columns as follows: Machine types; Fiscal Year 1922; Fiscal Year 1923; Fiscal Year 1924; Remarks. Each of the Fiscal Year columns is itself divided into three sub-columns: Manufacturers; Contract number; Breakdown of orders. Sections proceed as follows: Pursuit aircraft; Reconnaissance aircraft; Day and Night Bombers; School/Training aircraft; Seaplanes and hydrogliders.





Every word published in the JORF is meticulously weighed and proofread. Whatever other sources indicate, it's supposed to be the one source that beats them all; that being said, it's amusing to see that no-one noticed the "Protez, type 8" on top of the last page, which of course ought to read POTEZ !