Michel Wibault

Michel Henri Marie Joseph Wibault (5 June 1897 – 23 January 1963) was a French aircraft designer. He was a strong advocate of metal construction, and his airliners were important in the development of French commercial aviation in the 1930s. He is especially known for his invention of vectored thrust for aircraft, which led to the development of the V/STOL Hawker Siddeley Harrier.

Michel Wibault was born in Douai, near Lille, France, on 5 June 1897 to Achille and Madelaine Wibault. Achille owned a chain of about a hundred grocery shops. They had three sons and three daughters.

At the age of four, Michel was disabled by polio affecting all his limbs. As a result, he did not attend school, and was entirely home- and self-educated. He also had a German nanny. His disability precluded him from military service. During his childhood he often visited La Brayelle Airfield, where the world's first aviation meeting took place. It was home to the workshops of Louis Breguet whom he met and with whom he later formed a lasting acquaintance.

In August 1914, Douai was captured by the Germans, and German officers occupied the family mansion. Michel made visits to the occupied La Brayelle airfield. The Germans took little notice of the disabled young man and, understanding German, he was able to observe the activities and take extensive notes. He also met Anthony Fokker, who was staying with family friends while demonstrating his designs to the Germans. Michel built his own wind tunnel for testing models. Disliking the Germans, he was able to move to Belgium and then to Switzerland where he developed his ideas.

In March 1917 Wibault presented a fighter design to Lieutenant-Colonel Émile Dorand, Director of the Technical Section of Military Aeronautics (STAé) in Paris, and with financial assistance from his maternal uncle, made in December 1917, built a model which was successfully tested in the Eiffel aerodynamic laboratory.

With French engineer Paul Boccaccio, in 1918 he designed and built his first aeroplane, the Wibault-Boccaccio & Cie C.1 fighter powered by a 220 hp Hispano-Suiza engine. Tests were very successful, achieving a top speed of 237 km/h and an altitude of 7,500m, but development was abandoned at the end of the war.

In 1919 Wibault founded Société des Avions Michel Wibault at Billancourt, with various aircraft, mostly parasol monoplanes of Duralumin construction, flying from 1920. At first the aircraft were all military types, with Wibault turning to civil transports from 1930.

Wibault became a consulting engineer for Vickers, starting in 1922. As a pioneer of metal construction for which he held patents, he closely followed the design methods of Hugo Junkers and Caudius Dornier. Wibault and Vickers jointly developed more metal construction patents. By 1925 Vickers had adopted Wibault’s construction methods, and produced the Vickers Wibault Scout (based on the Wibault 7) – 26 of which were bought by the Chilean Air Force – the Vickers Vireo and Jockey fighters, and the Viastra, Vellore and Vellox civil transports.