In 1946 the French air ministry launched a jet-powered carrier-based fighter programme for the French Aéronautique Navale (the French Navy's air arm). Three aircrafts, all of them powered by the Rolls-Royce Nene, built under license by the Hispano-Suiza were presented in the Centre d'essais en vol (flight test centre) at Bretigny, among them the Aérocentre N.C.1080 the Nord 2200 and, of course the Arsenal VG-90.
Designed by the engineer Jean Galtier taking the Arsenal VG-70 as a basis, it was a high-winged monoplane with swept wings and stabilizers. The fuselage was made entirely out of metal and was of monocoque structure. Wings had a metal structure with a plywood covering. The air intakes were placed at both sides of the fuselage, tricycle configuration was chosen for the landing gear with the main wheels retracting into the wings. Planned armament changed during the development stage as initially it was going to be armed with 3 Hispano-Suiza 30mm cannons and up to 500kg of bombs under wings and later it was modified to two 20mm Hispano-Suiza cannons, seven 7,7mm machine-guns mounted in the wings, a retractable ventral pannel containing 36 rockets and external fuel tanks mounted under wings.
Three prototypes were built, flying the first one on 27th September 1949 and the flight tests at CEV Brétigny started on 10th April 1950 but on 25th May 1950 the first prototype crashed killing the test pilot, Pierre Decroo. The investigation concluded that one of the landing gear doors tore apart hitting the tail and rendering the prototype uncontrollable. It was replaced in June 1950 by a second prototype made completely out of metal but on 21st February 1952 the tail of the aircraft was torn off due to aerodynamic flutter. The test pilot, Claude Dellys couldn't make his ejector seat to work in time, killing him. Flight tests were interrumpted and the third prototype, which was being retrofitted with a 4000kgp thrust Snecma Atar 101F engine wasn't completed.
This programme in general was very disastrous as the other competitors had a lot of technical problems, the Aérocentre N.C.1080 which flew for the first time on 29th July 1949 was destroyed during a flight on 7th April 1950 killing the pilot Pierre Gallay and the last contender, the Nord 2200 was considered too heavy to operate from a carrier and was discarded. In the end, it was decided to buy a license to build the De Havilland Sea Venom, which was known as the Sud-Est Aquilon.
Sources:
1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_VG_90 (translated)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_VG_90
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of fighters
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