René Guilbaud (8 October 1890 – 18 June 1928) was an early-20th-century French military aviator.

Long-distance flights

Guilbaud was celebrated mainly for long-range flights, by

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 ...

across Africa in 1926 and 1927, first in a Lioré et Olivier LeO H-190 and then in CAMS 37.

Disappearance

Guilbaud disappeared in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

in June 1928, while piloting a

Latham 47 __NOTOC__ The Latham 47, or Latham R3B4 in Naval service was a French twin-engine flying boat designed and built by Société Latham & Cie for the French Navy. The aircraft achieved notoriety in 1928 when aircraft number 47.02 disappeared with t ...

flying boat in which

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...

was travelling to join the search for survivors of the crash of the airship ''Italia''. While debris from his aircraft was subsequently located by late August, no trace has ever been found of the occupants.

Legacy

The mountain

Guilbaudtoppen Guilbaudtoppen is a mountain in Sørkapp Land at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It has a height of 675 m.a.s.l. and is located east of the glacier of Olsokbreen, between Valettebreen Valettebreen is a glacier in Sørkapp Land Sørkapp Land is the land ...

Sørkapp Land Sørkapp Land is the land area south of Hornsund, at the southern part of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Two glaciers, Hornbreen and Hambergbreen, divide Sørkapp Land from Torell Land. Sørkapp Land is included in the Sør-Spitsbergen National Par ...

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

(

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

), is named after him.

Books

* ''La vie héroïque de René Guilbaud 1890-1928'' - Coindreau (Roger), 1958

References

External links