Ratier

By the outbreak of the first world war, the company was specializing in propeller blades for the aircraft of the French Air Force.

Much of its workload consisted of the contract work it received from Citroën to produce the Citroenette, a child's pedal-car.

It also produced aircraft parts for the German War machine and in January 1944 the Maquis, along with other French resistance groups, launched a secret attack on the factory and caused considerable damage.

[1] After World War II, France needed motorcycles for police and army forces.

[2] On this basis, chief engineer Jacques Dormoy started improving the product, sharing many common features with the BMW brand.

While the L7 was considered an obsolete design, prompting French Gendarmerie to buy German made post war BMW's instead, the C6S was on par with the BMW R60 performance-wise, the only difference being the use of a flector (rubber coupling) instead of a universal joint between gearbox and rear wheel transmission shaft.

While there were indeed a few civilian customers most of the production was absorbed by police and army forces, much like the Danish Nimbus motorcycles.

1939 : Ratier outfits 90% of the French Air Force, holds 63 world records, 32 foreign licenses, and has branches in Algeria, Switzerland and in Morocco.