In 1945, the French military wanted to create paratrooper divisions, but quickly found that they did not have any aircraft that could be used for this purpose.

So, General Juin, the then chief of staff, ordered the Direction Technique Industrielle to evaluate interest for this project.

Intended to provide the French Air Force, (French: Armée de l'Air (ALA), literally Army of the Air), with strategic transport and paratrooping capability the Cormoran was a large four-engined aircraft with a double-deck fuselage, high-set wing and tricycle undercarriage.

[1] After the fuselage of the first prototype was displayed at the 1946 Salon d'Áéronautique in Paris on November 15, 1946 the first flight was delayed due to hydraulic problems on the landing gear.

[1] Flight testing of the first production aircraft, from 9 April 1949, quickly revealed less than sparkling performance, leading to loss of confidence in the aircraft's ability to meet the requirement, (and possibly the safety of the design), resulting in cuts to the contract to ten production airframes.