Disclaimer: This text reflects only the opinion of its author and does not in any way commit the official word of the French Air and Space Academy.
By Eric DAUTRIAT, Vice-President of the French Air and Space Academy
The constant flowering of technological projects with no future but shimmering, whose survival period (i.e. funding) can be surprisingly long before their emptiness bursts into the open, and of which the aeronautics and space sectors are – among others – good providers, leads us to question the place of science and technology in public deliberation.
Is it embellishing the past to say that half a century ago, it was common, especially in France, to favor major projects prepared in symbiosis by representatives of States and by engineers, or even proposed by the latter, provided that they satisfy a political or economic ambition? Ariane (whose saga is well known, beginning in the disarray of Europa’s failures, with the L3S preliminary project), Concorde, Airbus, the civil nuclear industry are among many fine examples. There were also some great failures, let’s admit it. Be that as it may, the political will, supported by a reasoned technical vision, was capable of imposing itself on the short-term economic calculation…
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