Louis Charles Breguet (2 January 1880 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

– 4 May 1955 in

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

) was a French

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

designer and builder, one of the early

aviation pioneers Aviation pioneers are people directly and indirectly responsible for the advancement of flight, including people who worked to achieve manned flight before the invention of aircraft, as well as others who achieved significant "firsts" in aviation ...

Biography

Louis Charles Breguet was the grandson of Louis-Francois-Clement Breguet, and great-great-grandson of the famous horologist

Abraham-Louis Breguet Abraham-Louis Breguet (10 January 1747 – 17 September 1823), born in Neuchâtel, then a Prussian principality, was a horologist who made many innovations in the course of a career in watchmaking industry. He was the founder of the Bregue ...

. In 1902 Louis married Nelly Girardet, the daughter of painter

Eugène Girardet Eugène Alexis Girardet (31 May 1853 – 5 May 1907) was a French Orientalist painter of Swiss ancestry. Biography He came from a Swiss Huguenot family. His father was the engraver Paul Girardet. His siblings, Jules, Léon, Paul Armand, ...

. They had five children together. In 1903, he graduated from

École supérieure d'électricité École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Sav ...

, which was the top electrical engineering school in France. In 1905, with his brother Jacques, and under the guidance of

Charles Richet Charles Robert Richet (25 August 1850 – 4 December 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France known for his pioneering work in immunology. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on ...

, he began work on a gyroplane (the forerunner of the

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

) with flexible wings. On 29 September 1907, at his workshop at La Brayelle, it achieved the first ascent of a vertical-flight aircraft with a pilot, albeit only to a height of . It was also not a free flight, as four men were used to steady the structure. He built his first fixed-wing aircraft, the Breguet Type I, in 1909, flying it successfully before crashing it at the

Grande Semaine d'Aviation The ''Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne'' was an 8-day aviation meeting held near Reims in France in 1909, so-named because it was sponsored by the major local champagne growers. It is celebrated as the first international public flying e ...

held at Reims. In 1911, he founded the Société anonyme des ateliers d’aviation Louis Breguet. In 1912, Breguet constructed his first hydroplane. He is especially known for his development of reconnaissance aircraft used by the French in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and through the 1920s. One of the pioneers in the construction of metal aircraft, the

Breguet 14 Breguet or Bréguet may refer to: * Breguet (watch), watch manufacturer **Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823), Swiss watchmaker **Louis-François-Clement Breguet (1804–1883), French physicist, watchmaker, electrical and telegraph work * Bréguet ...

single-engined day bomber, perhaps one of the most widely used French warplanes of its time, had an airframe constructed almost entirely of

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

structural members. As well as the French, sixteen squadrons of the American Expeditionary Force also used it. A plane of this type has a major role in the plot of the 1927 thriller

So Disdained ''So Disdained'' is the second published novel by British author, Nevil Shute (N.S. Norway). It was first published in 1928 by Cassell & Co., reissued in 1951 by William Heinemann, and issued in paperback by Pan Books in 1966. In the United ...

Nevil Shute Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect ...

. In 1919 he founded the

Compagnie des messageries aériennes ''Compagnie des messageries aériennes'' was a pioneering French airline which was in operation from 1919–23, when it was merged with Grands Express Aériens to form Air Union. History Compagnie des messageries aériennes was established Februa ...

, which evolved into

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

. Over the years, his aircraft set several records. A Breguet plane made the first nonstop crossing of the

South Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

in 1927. Another made a flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1933, the longest nonstop Atlantic flight up to that time. He returned to his work on the gyroplane in 1935. Created with co-designer René Dorand, the craft, called the

Gyroplane Laboratoire An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Wh ...

, flew by a combination of blade flapping and feathering. On 22 December 1935 it established a speed record of 67 mph (108 km/h). It was the first to demonstrate speed as well as good control characteristics. The next year, it set an altitude record of 517 feet (158 m). Breguet remained an important manufacturer of aircraft during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and afterwards developed commercial transports. Breguet’s range equation, for determining aircraft

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

, is also named after him. He died of a heart attack in 1955 at

. In 1980, Breguet was inducted into the

International Air & Space Hall of Fame The International Air & Space Hall of Fame is an honor roll of people, groups, organizations, or things that have contributed significantly to the advancement of aerospace flight and technology, sponsored by the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Si ...

at the

San Diego Air & Space Museum San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM, formerly the San Diego Aerospace Museum) is an aviation and space exploration museum in San Diego, California, United States. The museum is located in Balboa Park and is housed in the former Ford Building, ...

Olympic sailing

Breguet, as helmsman of his yacht ''Namousa'', won a bronze medal in sailing during the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Breguet, Louis Charles 1880 births 1955 deaths Aviation pioneers Aviators from Paris French aerospace engineers Aerial reconnaissance pioneers Olympic sailors of France French male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 1924 Summer Olympics – 8 Metre Olympic medalists in sailing Rotorcraft flight record holders French aviation record holders Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for France

Biography

Olympic sailing

See also

References

Sources