Development of the Jodel

The Jodel Company

Édouard Joly had built his Flying Flea, and was president of the Aéro-Club de Beaune when Jean Délémontez visited to see his amateur built plane.  However, the plane was dismantled due to his wife’s concern for his safety. But the pair became good friends, Delemontez joined the Aéro-Club de Beaune and eventually married Edouard’s daughter.


In 1946 Jean Délémontez and Edouard Joly, using the two names to become Jo-Del, formed the Société des Avions Jodel.


Jodels were, and still are built by amateurs but were also factory built.


Lucien Querey was the owner of Société aéronautique normande (SAN), Berney, and became a great friend of Joly and Délémontez and was responsible for production builds starting from the D117. Lucien Querey was known as ‘the pussy cat’, a gentle pilot even though he was 140kgs, he test flew the planes at SAN. Querey built around 700 Jodels at the Berney factory.


From 1950, the Avions Wassmer company at Issoire started to build D9s under licence and would build the D112 & D120.


In 1957 Jean Délémontez worked with Pierre Robin at Centre-Est Aéronautique (CEA) in Dijon working on the D10 project which went on to become the DR100 series (DR1050). This became a long term collaboration and Robin would go on to take on the Jodel cranked wing design into later models, perhaps the most well known being the Robin DR400.


Want to know more? You can buy the book Jodel Aircraft 1938 to 2002 by Xavier Masse, English translation on CD available from Graham Clark

9th June 1918 – 7th July 2015 (aged 97)

Jean Délémontez

Jean Délémontez was a French aircraft designer. He was born in Lyon. He is best known for his work with his father-in-law, Édouard Joly, on the Jodel range of light aircraft and his collaboration with Pierre Robin on the Avions Robin aircraft range.


In 1935 he joined the French airforce, where, despite numerous tries, he never managed to become a pilot. However, he demonstrated mechanical competences early in his career - in 1936 he had already designed his first aircraft, the D1.


After studying at the Rochefort school of mechanics, he was assigned maintenance duties for the fighter aircraft of that time. In 1941 he entered the design bureau of the air force in Toulouse. At night he proceeded with his own designs and two years later he began working for Amiot. He worked at the design bureau before joining Edouard Joly at his company for repairing agricultural machines.


It was with Joly that he founded the "Société des avions Jodel" in 1946.



In December 2000 Délémontez was inducted into the Experimental Aircraft Association Homebuilders' Hall of Fame. He died at the age of 97 on July 7, 2015.

1898 – 1982 (aged 84)

Édouard Joli


Édouard Joly was a French aeroplane designer best known for his work with Jean Délémontez on the Jodel range of light aircraft.


He worked for 14 years at a company that sold and repaired farm equipment. During the First World War, he was mobilized as an aviation mechanic and stationed first in Avord and then in Dijon. At the end of the war, he returned to the company of which he in time became the owner.


His interest in aviation pushed him to become in 1932 one of the founding members of the Aéro-Club de Beaune. Edouard Joly then found "Le Sport de air" by Henri Mignet, he immediately began construction of a HM 14, in collaboration with a friend Andrew Montoloy. The built took 400 hours (HM 14 N° 26), modified and improved, the first flight took place in May 1935.


 In 1946, he joined his son-in-law Jean Délémontez to found the Société des Avions Jodel company for the study, construction and repair of airplanes. Together they designed the line of Jodel and Robin planes of which more than 6,000 were built in the following 50 years.

The Bébé-Jodel

The prototype Bébé-Jodel D9 now at the Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le BourgetNew paragraph

In 1947 Jean Délémontez conceived his ninth project. With Édouard Joly, they embark on the construction of their first aircraft, which will be the D9, the famous "Baby Jodel".


It is a single-engine wooden and canvas, single-seater with open cockpit with already the characteristic wings of the Jodel; a central rectangular part and the tip of the trapezoidal wings that goes back with a strong dihedral. The engine was the 25 HP Poinsard recovered from Edward's Flying Flea. It made its first flights in January 1948.


While they only built it for their enjoyment, only thinking of making a single copy, this small airplane was an unexpected success for its designers. The aircraft is sturdy, easy-to-manufacture and good performance. Requests from amateur manufacturers soon arrived. The French government was also interested.


This unusual little airplane has become a reference. It was followed by an impressive series of 2-seaters, 3-seaters, 4-seaters, etc. built by different companies and by amateur manufacturers directly on plans. The number of derived planes built is about 7,000.

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