Free Republic

PARIS (Reuters) - French billionaire Olivier Dassault was killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash, a police source said, with President Emmanuel Macron paying tribute to the 69-year old conservative politician. Dassault was the eldest son of late French billionaire industrialist Serge Dassault, whose namesake Dassault Aviation, builds the Rafale war planes and owns Le Figaro newspaper. “Olivier Dassault loved France. Captain of industry, lawmaker, local elected official, reserve commander in the air force: during his life, he never ceased to serve our country, to value its assets. His sudden death is a great loss. Thoughts on his family and...

Serge Dassault had to fight for a role in Groupe Dassault, a French maker of military and corporate jets founded by his father, Marcel Dassault. The father wasn’t impressed with the son’s academic record in engineering and at first gave him only peripheral roles in management. “When I joined the company, I could tell it annoyed him,” the younger Mr. Dassault once told a French magazine. “There wasn’t room for two,” his mother, Madeleine Dassault, said. Serge Dassault finally became CEO of the group in 1986, at age 61, when his father died. The younger Mr. Dassault maintained family control...