Born out of war

TOULOUSE – Seeing the conflagration in the Middle East spreading, we can keep our sanity intact by looking on the bright side.

Global civil aviation was born in this French city. It is home to European aviation giant Airbus and the European aerospace industry, and not surprisingly is also a research and university center.

And the civil aviation industry was born out of the First World War. Toulouse, according to a licensed tour guide here, was a sleepy city before WWI. But it was home to the world’s first dedicated institute of aerospace engineering, the Higher Institute of Aeronautics and Space (ISAE-SUPAERO), founded in 1909.

As the war became more likely, French industries began relocating to Toulouse to avoid destruction.

In preparation for war, the French government tasked a manufacturer of metal frames to build planes, tapping aerospace engineering talent from ISAE-SUPAERO.

When the war ended, the French had to find peaceful uses for the warplanes. They noted that French colonists in Africa had to wait two months for their mail. So they decided to use the warplanes for postal service. Thus was born the aviation company Aeropostale, whose first postal delivery from Toulouse was made to Barcelona in Spain on Christmas Day 1918.

From two months, mail delivery was cut to two days, with the planes flying from Toulouse to the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona, Gibraltar and on to South America.

Before becoming Aeropostale, the company was called Latecoere. Among those hired to fly this company’s planes was a 26-year-old who served as a military pilot when he was just 21, Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Yes, that’s everyone’s favorite writer and illustrator of “The Little Prince,” who flew postal planes from Toulouse to Senegal.

Saint-Exupery went missing in action during World War II on July 31, 1944, while he was on reconnaissance mission over Nazi-occupied France. The wreckage of his plane, a Lockheed Lightning P-38, was found off the coast of Marseille only in May 2000, two years after a French fisherman found his identity bracelet around the area, and officially identified in 2003.

*      *      *

In 1933, Aeropostale became Air France, with its headquarters in Toulouse.

“It all started here,” Toulouse Deputy Mayor for international relations Jean-Claude Dardelet told visitors from the Philippines last Thursday at the city hall, called the Capitole.

Through two world wars, Toulouse was never bombed, so the centuries-old structures of the “pink city” – so-called because of its terra cotta bricks – have been preserved. Untouched by war, research and innovation managed to thrive.

The early aviation innovators of Toulouse were not scared of failure. They designed and personally tested what we now deem to be crazy contraptions meant to be flying machines. These early models were patterned after bats and birds. The designers used light metal and wooden frames held together by piano wire, with the wings fashioned out of double-layer fabric to allow the machines to glide.

The early pilots didn’t seem too worried about falling from the sky; simply seeing their machine becoming airborne, even for a few moments, was probably fulfillment enough. The early models barely made it off the ground.

On July 25, 1909, Frenchman Louis Bleriot made the first airplane crossing of the English Channel on a two-seat, single-engine, tractor-propeller monoplane called (what else) the Bleriot XI.

The plane was originally intended for battlefield observation. Perhaps war gives urgency to innovation.

Today, much of the Toulouse economy revolves around Airbus. It’s an industry that can survive and even thrive on armed conflict. These days the city produces the weaponized drones used by Ukraine in hitting back at Russia.

Airbus, manufacturer not only of regular commercial aircraft but also of the ultra-lux Concorde (decommissioned), the world’s first commercial twin-engine jet (called the Caravelle) and the world’s first double-deck (and largest) four-engine, super-wide commercial plane, the A380, has its defense unit that produces military aircraft.

Now it boasts of the world’s most fuel-efficient long-range commercial jet, with a quieter cabin and wider leg room even in economy, which Airbus officials say reduces jet lag.

This is the A350-1000. Flag carrier Philippine Airlines, the only domestic carrier offering long-range flights, has been impressed enough to order nine of the planes.

*      *      *

Last week, PAL executives led by PAL Holdings board director Sheila Tan Pascual, daughter of taipan Lucio Tan, flew to Toulouse to inspect the first of the nine A350-1000 planes. The aircraft is currently being assembled for delivery by December.

PAL has no direct flights to France. Flying back to Manila from Toulouse over the weekend, PAL chief operating officer Carlos Luis Fernandez nearly got caught in the closure of Qatari airspace after Iran unleashed a missile barrage on the US base in Qatar.

Israel has developed a missile shield, although some missiles fired by its enemies still manage to penetrate and inflict death and destruction on the Jewish state.

One day perhaps that missile shield will have peaceful applications. To keep out asteroids, maybe, or debris from satellites disintegrating as they fall from the sky.

Even drones have roots in warfare. The earliest form recorded was way back in 1849, when Austria launched about 200 balloons filled with explosives toward Venice. Radio-controlled aerial devices were also used during the two world wars, for both reconnaissance and bombings.

These weaponized drones – as well as airplanes – drew inspiration from the hot air balloon, with the first unmanned model rising up to 3,000 feet into the air on June 5, 1783.

This took place in Annonay, France, with the balloon designed by French brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier.

As the world can see, unfortunately, inventions meant for civilian use can also be used for war.