France
Avions Kellner-Bechereau was founded at Billancourt in 1931. The company was founded in 1931 by Louis Béchereau together with the French automobile carriage-builder Georges Kellner. The factory, located at Boulogne-Billancourt, began building light monoplanes.
Kellner had built car bodies; also SPAD fighters under contract from 1916. Bechereau was experienced in aircraft design (Deperdussin and SPAD types) and had patented new kinds of wooden construction, using molds. In 1936–37 Avions Kellner-Béchereau built a short series of small monoplanes exploiting one of Louis Béchereau’s patents, a full span lateral division of the wing into two sections forming a “double wing”. The wing was first tested on the single-seat Kellner-Béchereau E.1 on 1936, which was followed by two larger and more powerful two-seaters, the Kellner-Béchereau EC.4 and ED.5. Both of these were designed to meet the French Air Ministry’s requirement for a pre-military trainer aircraft to be used by the clubs set up in the “Aviation Populaire” programme.
During the 1930s the company made 60 fuselages for recently-ordered SPAD 510 fighter biplanes, using Bechereau system. Built monoplane with Delage inverted engine for Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe.
In 1936 built a single-seat lightplane using Bechereau-patented “double wing” (divided laterally, with rear parts hinged differentially to act as slotted flaps or ailerons), and in 1937 two side-by-side-seater developments were built, one of metal and one of wood. With low-powered Train engine, aircraft of this type (E-1 single-seater) established class records. The Kellner-Béchereau designs, however, were not ordered for the Aviation Populaire programme, the Air Ministry opting in favour of the Caudron C.270 and the Salmson Cri-Cri which were both bought in large numbers. Instead, Kellner-Béchereau, along with other manufacturers, built the Cri-Cri under licence.
In 1939 Georges Paulin, who in 1934 had designed the Peugeot 601 Éclipse convertible automobile, joined the aerodynamical department of the Kellner-Béchereau factory. A member of the French Resistance, he was arrested in 1941 and executed the following year.
On the eve of the Second World War, Louis Béchereau conceived a monoplane, the Kellner-Béchereau E.60, also known as K.B.E 60, an embarked monoplane for the aircraft carriers of the French Navy, but its development was frustrated by events.
The Kellner-Béchereau factory was destroyed by bombing in 1942 and the Avions Kellner-Béchereau company was subsequently merged with Morane-Saulnier. Louis Béchereau was given a post as a director at Morane-Saulnier until his retirement in 1950.
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