On this day, in 1959, the MD 415 Communauté made its first flight in Bordeaux-Mérignac piloted by Paul Boudier, Dominique Mourey and Jean Dillaire.
When war broke out in Algeria, the French authorities pressed for a specialized twin-engine aircraft, more heavily armed and better protected. At the end of 1957, the Mérignac design office came up with two aircraft types based on the same airframe:
- the MD 415 Communauté for liaison, with secondary fire-support capability
- the MD 410 Spirale for fire-support, with liaison as a secondary capability
Community MD 415 on the ground © Dassault Aviation – All Rights Reserved
The MD 415 Communauté, designed by Dassault, had a pressurized fuselage and could carry about ten passengers as well as a considerable battery of weapons (two 30-mm cannons, bombs, rockets and air-to-ground missiles) for air strikes..