Paul Marcel Teste (2 October 1892 – 13 June 1925) was a French Navy officer aviator, notable for the first aeronaval landing of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

aboard the ''Béarn''.

Life

Teste was born at

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

, into a naval family, and entered the

École Navale 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, Savoi ...

in 1909, aged 17. He was made a midshipman in 1911, and was promoted to ''enseigne de vaisseau 2e classe'' in 1912. Teste joined the

Aviation Navale French Naval Aviation (often abbreviated in French to: ''Aéronavale'' (contraction of Aéronautique navale), or ''Aviation navale'', or more simply ''l'Aéro'') is the naval air arm of the French Navy. The long-form official designation is ' ...

in 1917. He was shot down on the 26 May and was taken prisoner in Karlsruhe. After a first unsuccessful escape attempt, he managed to rejoin France in January 1918. PA Bearn

At the end of the war, Teste was appointed to lead efforts to constitute a carrier-based air force, the ''Aviation d'Escadre'' ("Squadron aviation"). Promoted to ''capitaine de corvette'' in 1923, he pioneered the French efforts to design aircraft carriers. In 1924, Teste flew an FBA 17 across France to chart waterplans usable as emergency landing spots for flying boats in distress. Teste was killed at Villacoublay, on an

Amiot 120 The Amiot 120 was a family of French single-engine biplane bomber aircraft, built by the SECM-Amiot factory in the mid-1920s. The only series-built variant was Amiot 122 BP3 medium bomber, other known variant was Amiot 123 long-distance record p ...

, in a training flight for an attempt at crossing the Atlantic.

Honours

* The seaplane tender ''

Commandant Teste ''Commandant Teste'' was a large seaplane tender of the French Navy (french: Marine Nationale) built before World War II. She was designed to be as large as possible without counting against the Washington Naval Treaty, Washington Treaty limits. ...

'' was named in his honour. *

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

at the Order of the Army

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Teste 1892 births 1925 deaths French Navy officers French aviators Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in France French World War I pilots