Didier Daurat (2 January 1891,

Montreuil-sous-Bois Montreuil (), sometimes unofficially referred to as Montreuil-sous-Bois (), is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris in Seine-Saint-Denis. With a population of 109,914 as of 2018, Montreuil is ...

– 2 December 1969,

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

) was a pioneer of French

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

. He was a fighter pilot during

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 ...

, distinguishing himself by spotting the

Paris Gun The Paris Gun (german: Paris-Geschütz / Pariser Kanone) was the name given to a type of German long-range siege gun, several of which were used to bombard Paris during World War I. They were in service from March to August 1918. When the guns w ...

which was pounding Paris. After the war, he joined an airline company, which later became the Compagnie générale aéropostale - Aéropostale, then

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 air ...

, where he was a pilot and later operations director. From then, the legend of the man with the iron will made him a boss admired by many, feared by all and hated by some. He did not hesitate to dismiss those who showed the slightest sign of weakness, questioned his methods or did not adhere to the 'spirit of the mail' (''l'esprit du courrier''). Many of his pilots began their careers as grease monkeys, taking apart, cleaning and reassembling engines. According to Daurat, that formed character and taught pilots to respect their machines. However, he knew when he saw a talented pilot. When Jean Mermoz presented himself in

and made a dazzling display of piloting skill, Daurat told him, "I don't need circus artists but bus drivers." (''Je n'ai pas besoin d'artistes de cirque mais de conducteurs d'autobus''.) Nevertheless, he hired him to clean the engines. These methods proved their worth because the Latécoère lines, and later Aéropostale, achieved a level of punctuality and reliability unknown for the time on the

- Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal route, and later from Toulouse-

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

with a 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 ...

and the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. When Aéropostale was integrated with

in 1933, Daurat, friendless, was dismissed. In 1935, he founded the

Air Bleu Air Bleu (Société Anonyme Air Bleu) was a French airline company between 1935 and 1940 that specialised in the delivery of mail within France. Air Bleu started operations on the 10 July 1935 with Caudron Simoun aircraft operating four different ...

company, which transported mail throughout France by day as well as by night. Results were remarkable, but the company was militarised with the declaration of war, in 1939. Following the Liberation of France, he relaunched the night postal service before becoming operations chief for Air France at

Orly Orly () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. It is located from the center of Paris. The name of Orly came from Latin ''Aureliacum'', "the villa of Aurelius". Orly Airport partially lies on the territory of the comm ...

, which until his retirement, in 1953. He died in Toulouse in 1969. At his request, he was granted the honour of being buried on the Toulouse- Montaudran Airport, the former base of Aéropostale.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...

took inspiration from him for the character of ''Rivière'' in '' Night Flight'' (''Vol de nuit'', 1931).

Publications

*''Saint-Exupéry tel que je l'ai connu'' (1954) *''Dans le vent des hélices'' (1956) {{DEFAULTSORT:Daurat, Didier 1891 births 1969 deaths People from Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis French aviators French military personnel of World War I