JODEL & ROBIN CONSTRUCTION LISTS
Compiled by David Wise

CONTENTS

JODEL-DERIVED DESIGNS
ROBIN METAL & COMPOSITE DESIGNS
PRODUCTION LISTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX - By type
INDEX - Cross-reference by registration

JODEL DESIGNS

The Avions Jodel company was established by the test pilot Edouard Joly and designer Jean Delemontez to exploit a successful polygonal-wing design developed by Delemontez. This started with the single-seat D9 in 1948 and two-seat D11 family from 1950. Jodel only built a few aircraft themselves. Most were built by several other commercial licenced-production companies and from plans by amateur builders, including some French flying clubs building aircraft for their own use. The concept was further developed by Delemontez with the five-seat D140 and two-seat D150 built by SAN, and by Pierre Robin with a series of 3/4-seater designs leading on to large-scale production of nosewheel variants.

Many Jodel models are still in production today in the form of commercially-manufactured Robin aircraft, and amateur-built aircraft to plans supplied by Avions Jodel/SAB in France and also by Frank Rogers in Australia, Falconar in Canada and Airworld in the U.K.

Some basic notes are included at the start of the list for each individual family.

Brief historical and technical details of the individual models are available in Airlife's General Aviation by Rod Simpson.

An excellent history of the personalities and technical evolution of the Jodel marque, is 'Jodel Aircraft' by Xavier Masse, published in French by Nouvelles Editions Latines. An English translation is available on CD from Graham Clark, e-mail: cgraham978@aol.com

These lists cover both commercially-built and amateur-built models. I have included all known commercial production lines, including several in France and those in Spain, Switzerland and Germany, along with other attempts to start production in Italy and USA. The amateur-builts include the variants designed by Chris Falconar in Canada and Frank Rogers in Australia as well as the unmodified Jodel plans sold by them, and also several French 'one-offs'. As well as the production lists, there is a cross-reference by registration.

The total so far is over 6,000 completed aircraft. With the Robin DR400 and DR500 and the ULM version of the D20 in commercial production, and amateur-builders producing many of the recent D18, D19 and D20 models as well as a continuing trickle of the older designs and one-offs, the list is continuing to grow every month.

ROBIN DESIGNS

CEA was renamed as Avions Pierre Robin in 1974, continuing manufacture at Dijon. It was taken over by the Apex Group in 1988, though it continued to use Robin as its trading name. Apex also took over some other French aviation companies, including Mudry, the builders of the CAP 10 and CAP 20 aerobatic aircraft, which had previously taken over the old SAN Jodel factory at Bernay, including support for the Jodel D140's. The Apex Group encountered financial problems which resulted in a restructuring, though most aircraft production continued. This resulted in the manufacturing division being renamed as Constructions Aeronautiques de Bourgogne (CAB) from Jan 2002 and now this is the registered manufacturer, though Robin and CAP have continued to be used as trademarks. The R2120/2160 production line and worldwide rights were sold in late 2004 to Alpha at Hamilton in New Zealand. Fresh financial problems led to the cessation of production by both Alpha and Robin in 2008. Robin's problems stemmed primarily from the failure of the Thielert company whose diesel engines were being used extensively in new Robin aircraft. News is awaited of plans to revive these businesses.

In addition to designs evolving from the Jodel concept, the Avions Pierre Robin Company produced a variety of metal and composite aircraft designed by Chris Heinz and Pierre Robin. These have now been included here for completeness and have been added to the registration cross-reference index.

PRODUCTION LISTS

Work on these lists started in the 1980's with the intention that they should form an Appendix to a book on the history of the Jodel family by another author. The book project was shelved, but I have continued to update and develop the lists and they are now being made available separately here.

These lists have been cross-checked against several independent sources. In a few cases conflicting information has been found, only approximate dates and sketchy details are known for many early aircraft, several aircraft have changed model designation when they have been re-engined or rebuilt, occasionally the official records are ambiguous, and detailed fates are not known for several of the cancellations. It is inevitable that there will be a few errors and omissions. You use this data at your own risk!

One particular problem in several countries (U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, U.S.A., Netherlands) has been tracing amateur-built aircraft which have been registered with personalised construction numbers or with project numbers allocated by various national amateur-building organisations, and their original plans numbers are not quoted in the official records. Sweden is uniquely helpful - the official register normally gives both the suppliers' serial number and the EAAS amateur-built project number for all such aircraft. Also the recent introduction of separate registration series for Ultralights in several countries (France, Australia, Italy etc), has made it difficult to find information on the aircraft in these blocks.

A primary reason for publishing the list is to provoke feedback. I would welcome any additions, corrections or more detailed information, however small. Please e-mail: dave.wise@btinternet.com

NOTE - ROBIN FACTORY NUMBERS

Thanks to recent information from Robin factory records supplied by Joel Thomas, factory line numbers have been listed for some models, starting from the late 1970's. During manufacture, the airframes are identified by the factory number. The manufacturer's serial numbers (the registered construction numbers) are assigned only at a late stage of assembly, and are often not in sequence with the factory number, occasionally by a large margin when an airframe was used for tests or development. This information is provided here so that anyone who visited the factory and noted factory numbers on the line can now translate these into identities. Note particularly that for the ATL model, the factory numbers and construction numbers are in the same number range, occasionally the same but usually differing by just a few.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The initial work on compiling these lists was undertaken by David Wise and Robin Sauvary in 1990-92. It has subsequently been maintained and updated from Air Britain News, other books, magazines and websites, and personal contacts.

Several other people have made major contributions, many of them contacted through Air Britain. In particular, thanks are due to Eric Fogwill and Don Gill for a detailed search through their early registration archives, Roger Braithwaite and Jean-Paul Dubois for copies of their own substantial researches in this area, Frank Rogers in Australia for details of the aircraft built to his plans, Kay Hagby in Norway, Anders Ljungberg in Sweden, Peter-Michael Gerhardt in Germany, William Laundry and Mike Ody in Canada and Richard Currie in New Zealand for details from their national registers; Tony Conyers, David Partington and Ian Burnett for checking the lists and resolving several queries; Rod Simpson, Chris Falconar, David Gray, Richard Hamblin, Rainer Haufschild, Ernie Horsfall, and Michael Jones of Rollasons for additional material; Bernard King, John Crawford, Tony Pearce, Ken Dalton and Stuart MacConnacher for the loan of material from their own libraries. Also Lutz Gebhardt for his recent website with detailed work on the DR1050 family, and feedback from several individual owners contacted through the Jodel e-mail group or who have found this website by an internet search on their registrations.

Published sources include Ken Ellis's book on British Homebuilt Aircraft, Rod Simpson's 'Airlife's General Aviation', Chillon & Caillaud's 'Foxtrot-Papa' on French homebuilts, and various national aircraft registers published over the years by Air Britain, LAAS, WLAG, GAS, and MCP. The lists have been cross-checked against several registration websites, including the collection of historic national registers available from Pascal Brugier and the current on-line registers provided by an increasing number of national airworthiness authorities, while American survivors have been checked on the Landings website.

A special thank-you to Joel Thomas, who is a manager at the Dijon factory and who has sent me a complete CEA/Robin production list. This has provided a lot of previously unpublished information and answered many long-standing queries. Particularly this includes the factory line numbers for several models, and many initial reserved registrations which were not taken up. For these, the pages on the website have been extended to accommodate the extra information.

Finally thanks to the UK Jodel Club, particularly the late Peter Underhill who started it, and Chris and Mavis Parker who ran it from 1983 to 2005.

You are visitor number to land here since March 2004
(reset with total since Dec 2001 = 7310).

David Wise

INDEX - By type

INDEX - Cross-reference by registration

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