design team was formally set up at Saint-Cloud, Paris, France; that same month, a join Franco-German protocol was signed, launching the construction of four prototypes. In February 1972, the approval to proceed with full development was issued. In May 1972, the first project meeting was held in Bordeaux, at which the order for the four prototypes was formally placed. By November 1972, the project had passed its first mock-up review. Dassault was designated as the 'pilot' company for the project and possessed final authority on design and management decisions, this approach to project management has been claimed to have been a mostly efficient manner of running the program. Two prototypes were to be built by Dassault in France (Dassault having bought out Breguet in the meantime) and a further two were to be built by Dornier in Germany. On 26 October 1973, the first French prototype performed its first flight at Istres, Marseille; on 9 January 1974, the first German prototype conducted its maiden flight from Oberpfaffenhofen, Bavaria. The remaining two prototypes were in the air before the end of 1974. The first and second prototypes were used to explore the aircraft's flight envelope, the third prototype was fitted with the French trainer equipment fit and the fourth with the German close air support equipment. The prototypes were equipped with recording and telemetry equipment packages, allowing for instrumentation readings and other useful data to be received on the ground in real time during test flights. Manufacture of Alpha Jet sub-assemblies was divided between France (Dassault), Germany (Dornier) and Belgium (SABCA), each country performing final assembly and checkout of the type in separate facilities. Dassault hosted the largest of these three assembly lines, typically producing 13 aircraft per month to meet the needs of French and export customers, it was reportedly capable of a maximum output of 15 Alpha Jets per month; the Dornier final assembly line typically maintained a maximum rate of six aircraft per month. In contrast to the final assembly arrangements, none of the three sources duplicated the manufacture of any component: Dassault-Breguet produced the front and center fuselage, Dornier constructed the wing, tail and rear fuselage, while SABCA manufactured the nose and flaps of the aircraft. A total of 4,500 people were employed in the manufacturing of the Alpha Jet in Germany, an equal number in France also worked on the programme. Both Belgium and Egypt, who