Armand Deperdussin (July 8, 1864 in Liège,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

– June 11, 1924 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

) was a French industrialist and aviation pioneer. Having established himself as a silk-broker, he became involved in the aviation industry in 1910 after witnessing the triumphs of aviator Louis Blériot, founding Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin. In 1912 he bought Champagne Airfield, and built 30 workshops and other buildings, founding one of the first flying schools. He hired aircraft designer

Louis Béchereau Louis Béchereau (July 25, 1880 in Plou, Cher – March 18, 1970 in Paris) was a French aeronautical engineer and pioneer of French aviation. Biography After having attended the École nationale professionnelle in Vierzon, Béchereau went to t ...

, who designed

monohull right A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another. Fundamental concept Among the earliest hulls were simple logs, but these were generally unst ...

aircraft whose streamlined shapes achieved previously unattainable performance. With dedicated staff and revolutionary technical advances, the company won many prizes, especially the international Gordon Bennett Trophy in France in 1912 with pilot

Jules Védrines Jules Charles Toussaint Védrines (29 December 1881 – 21 April 1919) was an early French aviator, notable for being the first pilot to fly at more than 100 mph and for winning the Gordon Bennett Trophy race in 1912. Biography Jules Védrin ...

, who became the first pilot to fly over 100 mph [], and again in 1913 with pilot Maurice Prévost, who flew . The company went bankrupt in August 1913, and Deperdussin was disgraced in 1913 when he was accused of obtaining bank loans by fraud and forgery. He was not brought to trial until 1917, and on March 30, 1917 he was convicted of embezzling 32 million francs from his company, fined 1,000 francs, and jailed for five years The company was renamed the

Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

(SPAD) when it was taken over by

Blériot Aéronautique Blériot Aéronautique was a French aircraft manufacturer founded by Louis Blériot. It also made a few motorcycles between 1921 and 1922 and cyclecars during the 1920s. Background Louis Blériot was an engineer who had developed the first pra ...

in 1914. Deperdussin committed suicide in 1924.

References

1860 births 1924 suicides Businesspeople from Liège French aerospace engineers French industrialists Businesspeople from Paris Suicides by firearm in France Burials at Batignolles Cemetery 1924 deaths {{France-engineer-stub