Pierre Georges Albert Levasseur (July 16, 1890 in Paris – August 2, 1941 in Paris) was a French aircraft and component maker. He set up his company ''Société Pierre Levasseur Aéronautique'', always referred to simply as Levasseur in Paris in 1910, beginning by making propellers. In 1913 he began building aircraft designed by others. He then began to design his own, the majority of which were single-engine

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

s for

French Naval Aviation 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 ' ...

. He also ran a flying school, where the chief pilot of his school was

François Denhaut François Denhaut (1877–1952) was a French aviator notable for designing, constructing and flying the first flying boat in 1912.Nicolaou, p.17 Life He was born on 4 October 1877 at Champagnat, Creuse and after some success as a racing cycli ...

(1877–1952), notable for designing the first

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

. Georges Abrial (1898 – 1970), an early French

aerodynamicist Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

, also worked with Levasseur to produce the

Levasseur-Abrial A-1 The Levasseur-Abrial A-1 was a Glider aircraft, glider built in 1922 as a result of a collaboration between French aerodynamicist Georges Abrial de Péga and constructor Pierre Levasseur (aircraft builder), Pierre Levasseur. A single example was ...

Sociéte Pierre Levasseur Aéronautique

Models created included: *

, 1922

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

* Levasseur PL.2, naval biplane

torpedo bomber A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...

Levasseur PL.4 The Levasseur PL.4, aka Levasseur ''Marin'', was a carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including c ...

, carrier-based

reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using photography), signals intelligence, as ...

Levasseur PL.5 __NOTOC__ The Levasseur PL.5 was a carrier-based fighter produced in France in the late 1920s, in response to the 1924 AMBC.2 (two seat carrier based fighter) specification issued by the ''Service Technique de l'Aéronautique'' (STAé). It was a ...

, carrier-based fighter * Levasseur PL.6, 1926 two-seat fighter aircraft *

Levasseur PL.7 The Levasseur PL.7 was a torpedo bomber developed in France in the late 1920s. It was a development of Levasseur's PL.4 reconnaissance aircraft and intended to replace their PL.2 then in service with the Aéronavale. It was a single-bay bipla ...

, torpedo bomber * Levasseur PL.8, special model created for the

Orteig Prize The Orteig Prize was a reward offered to the first Allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice versa.Bak. Pages 28 and 29. Several famous aviators made unsuccessful attempts at the New York–Paris flight before the rela ...

(see ''

The White Bird ''L'Oiseau Blanc'' (English: ''The White Bird'') was a French Levasseur PL.8 biplane that disappeared in 1927 during an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight between Paris and New York City to compete for the Orteig Prize. F ...

''), a famous aircraft which disappeared in 1927 during an attempt to make the first non-stop

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing air ...

between

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 ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Levasseur PL.10 __NOTOC__ The Levasseur PL.10 was a carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft developed in France in the late 1920s.Taylor 1989, 575 It was a conventional, single-bay biplane along similar lines to Levasseur (aircraft manufacturer), Levasseur's cont ...

, carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft *

Levasseur PL.14 __NOTOC__ The Levasseur PL.14 was a torpedo bomber seaplane developed in France in the late 1920s.Taylor 1989, 575 It was essentially similar to Levasseur's PL.7 carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft with the addition of pontoons. The design di ...

, 1920s

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

torpedo bomber *

Levasseur PL.15 __NOTOC__ The Levasseur PL.15 was a torpedo bomber seaplane developed in France in the early 1930s.Taylor 1989, p. 575. It was a follow-on design to Levasseur's PL.14 that had, in turn, been developed from the carrier-based PL.7.Taylor and Al ...

, 1930s seaplane torpedo bomber

References

Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France Aircraft propeller manufacturers 1890 births 1941 deaths {{France-business-bio-stub