On June 18, on the eve of the opening of the 54th Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, the premiere of the Renault Rafale coupe-shaped full-size crossover on the CMF-CD modular platform will take place. There are no details yet, but judging by the teasers, it can be assumed that the car will be a fashion analogue of the sixth generation family Espace. It is also clear that the range will include a hybrid version of the E-Tech based on a 1.2-liter turbo engine.
The teaser shows a Rafale in an expensive Alpine configuration. It is already clear that not just Austral / Espace with a sloping roof awaits us: the headlight pattern and even the window line of the cross-coupe will have their own. But still, what’s with the planes?
The fact is that the name Rafale, unlike Austral, is not new for Renault. In 1933, Louis Renault, who was keen on aviation, acquired the Caudron aircraft company, and a year later, the Caudron C.460 Rafale single-seat aircraft saw the light.
The name translates as “squall”, and it was chosen to emphasize the aerodynamics and high fuel efficiency of the future SUV. Silvia dos Santos, who is in charge of model names at Renault, says the new name “expresses the power of nature and naturally evokes something floating through the air.”
Caudron C.460 Rafale
Renault likes to remember Helen Bush, who on the Caudron C.450 developed a record 445 km / h for women of that time, but that record holder did not wear Rafale prefixes. Moreover, three months after setting the record, Boucher, flying a Caudron C.430 Rafale, crashed during a training flight at the Guyancourt airfield. By the way, now the Renault technocenter is located in this city.
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