Georges Paulin

Georges Paulin was a dentist, noted automobile designer and hero of the French Resistance during the Second World War.

Born 1902 in a working class section of Paris, Paulin would later design the 1935 Peugeot 601 C Eclipse, the first production retractable hardtop convertible.

Between 1934 and 1938 he was the designer for French coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout. Among his designs were a Panhard coupe, a Unic cabriolet, a Delage D8, the "water drop" Talbot-Lago, the Darl'mat Peugeot roadsters used in 1937 and 1938 at Le Mans.

Richard Adatto, author of a book on French aerodynamic styling of the era, said

Pourtout, Emile Darl'mat, and Paulin collaborated in the creation of the revolutionary Eclipse roof, the first power-operated retractable hardtop, which was patented by Paulin in 1931 and in 1934 was used in the Peugeot 402BL Éclipse Décapotable, a small coupe. Carrosserie Pourtout produced Eclipse versions of the Peugeot 301, 401, 402 and 601, the Lancia Belna, and models from Hotchkiss and Panhard.

From 1938 to 1939 he worked exclusively for Rolls-Royce-Bentley. For them he designed the Corniche 1 in 1939 and the Comet Competition.

In July 1940, while he was an engineer at Avions Kellner-Béchereau, Georges Paulin began working with British Intelligence to fight the Nazis. Discovered by the Gestapo thanks to French Vichy elements he was arrested in 1941 and condemned to death by a German military tribunal. He was executed March 1942. An escape plan had been arranged by the British, but Paulin declined to use it, and sacrificed himself in order to protect his team.

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