Trappier was born and raised in Paris. He received an engineering degree from
Telecom SudParis in 1983. He joined
Dassault Aviation soon after graduation (1984). He has spent most of his career in the defense sector. He was named the company's international
sales manager in 2002, and international
general manager in 2006. He served as international executive vice president of the company before being named to the CEO position. He replaced
Charles Edelstenne in that position when Edelstenne reached the company's mandatory retirement age (75). In May 2017, the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe announced the appointment of Trappier as its president. In 8 June 2017, the executive committee of the French Aerospace Industries Association
GIFAS elected Trappier, the incumbent first deputy chairman of GIFAS, as the new chairman of GIFAS. Trappier was disappointed by the failure of a deal to build a multi-national technology demonstrator of a combat drone for $2.5 billion because the British government pulled the subsidy. The project had been stalled for six years already to date. In March 2021, Trappier said that the
Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project and the British-Swedish-Italian
Tempest project would not be merged. In the words of another journalist, in the same interview Trappier "delivered a stinging rebuke" to his partner
Airbus. In June 2022, Trappier called for mediation in discussions he was having over the three-party intra-European conglomeration that aimed to build the FCAS fighter jet. In December 2022, the three governments of the FCAS project partners approved Phase 1B in a €3.2 billion subsidy. In March 2023, Trappier insisted that Dassault be the lead contractor (instead of Airbus) for the FCAS. In May 2023, Dassault was seen to be advancing work on the next-generation
Rafale fighter jet in spite of the FCAS partnership it had signed with the Germans and the Spanish. In May 2023, Trappier railed against the Commission of the
European Union because they had excluded
business jets from their list of "green industries" which "can be considered sustainable investments" and thus would be removed from subsidy. He argued that
sustainable aviation fuel is a panacea. In January 2025, Trappier was appointed the chairman of the Dassault family's holding company,
Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault, which controls the family's entire business holdings. He replaced Edelstenne in the position. ==Positions==