The design envisaged using readily available engines with the aim of ease of manufacture and an early first-flight date.

The aircraft was destined not to be the first French postwar design to fly, an honour which instead fell to the Sud-Est Languedoc, a civil version of the Bloch MB161.

[citation needed] The prototype was followed by three Br.761S pre-production aircraft powered by 2,020 hp (1506 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-B31 radial engines.

The 763 had more powerful engines, a 1.20 metres (3 ft 11 in) larger wingspan, strengthened wings and a three-crew flight deck (earlier aircraft had four crew).

Projects to build versions powered with British engines (for possible United Kingdom buyers) did not come to fruition.

[1] Six aircraft were used in response to a serious incident at Salat, Algeria where French oil rig engineers were in need of assistance.

[1] The introduction of the Sud Aviation Caravelle rendered the Provence obsolete as a passenger aircraft.

In 1958, Breguet borrowed F-BASQ from Air France for a sales tour to North and South America.

The tour covered 25,000 miles (40,000 km), and took in the cities of New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami in the United States, Bogotá in Colombia, Santiago in Chile, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília in Brazil.

A double-deck AEC Routemaster bus was parked alongside the aircraft to mark the retirement of the Br.763 from service.

[1] In October 1955 an order for 30 Breguet Br.765 Sahara aircraft for the Armée de l'Air was announced.