The French Navy asked a firm whose original-design experience then amounted chiefly to a glider to supply a carrier torpedo bomber. That choice raises questions about how coherently the service decided what it needed and how it should procure it. The criticism concerns the decision-making method, including the match between requirement and supplier, rather than a blanket claim that every resulting machine was poor. Levasseur's aircraft could still be workable despite the risky-looking route by which the order was placed. The case distinguishes procurement discipline from equipment performance: an uneven institution can still obtain a usable design.
Notable Point · 6:23-7:48
Levasseur's selection exposes an uneven procurement method
Levasseur's limited original-design experience raises questions about how coherently the interwar French Navy decided what aircraft to buy and how to source them.