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[edwest2]

I am finding even more complications with French aircraft manufactures, such as:


The Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Nord (SNCAN), which was created in 1936 as a nationalized conglomerate of military aircraft manufacturers Potez (Méaulte, in the Somme), Amiot (Caudebec-en-Caux) and Bréguet (Le Havre) (all three in eastern Normandy), and also CAMS (Sartrouville) and A.N.F. Les Mureaux (Les Mureaux) (in the western suburbs of Paris).

It is worth noting that given the agglomeration of all those companies into state-controlled entities, some level of synergy between them might have led to new aircraft borrowing elements from one another (say, fuselage design a la Potez, fuselage structure a la CAMS), making it more difficult to trace one particular "house style" to the design. However, no aircraft were labeled "SNCAN" as such, and they continued to be called Potez, Bréguet, etc.

Of course, the SNCAO (Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques de l'Ouest) connection cannot be excluded, especially since Loire-Nieuport had facilities both on the seaside at Saint-Nazaire AND at Issy-les-Moulineaux, just outside Paris (while the Bréguet part of it was in Bouguennais, on the seaside too, not far from Saint-Nazaire). By 1941, SNCAO had become part of SNCASO (based in Bordeaux and Rochefort), which also fell under German control. Besides, it is worth noticing that not all CAO designations, used from 1937 on, are accounted for yet.