Our series “Major industrial espionage cases”
The Tupolev Tu-144 and the Concorde
Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola (
released Tuesday, August 16
)
Li Li Whuang, a modern-day Mata Hari at Valeo (to
be published on Wednesday August 17
)
Hilton and Starwood Hotels (for
release Thursday, August 18
)
Renault, false nest of spies (to
be published on Friday August 19
)
At the beginning of 1965, at the exit of a restaurant, where he tried to bribe an informant, Serguei Pavlov, representative in France of the Soviet company Aeroflot, was arrested by the DST (Directorate of Territorial Surveillance).
In his possession: detailed plans of the brakes, the landing gear and the cell of… Concorde, then designed in the greatest secrecy in France and England.
While he fails to get rid of his briefcase in a sewer, we also find in his Paris apartment piles of documents on all kinds of devices, including of course the Concorde.
On February 16, Pavlov hastily left France.
Six months later, he was condemned by default by the French State to five years' imprisonment.
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