Louis Paulhan
Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan (French: [pɔlɑ̃]; 19 July 1883 – 10 February 1963),[1] was a French aviator. He is known for winning the first Daily Mail aviation prize for the first flight between London and Manchester in 1910.
Biography
Paulhan was born at
He quickly established himself as gifted pilot. He took part in many airshows, including one in
On 29 October 1909, Paulhan made the first official powered flight at Brooklands, Surrey, England, in his biplane made by Farman Aviation Works. This was also the first public flying display at Brooklands and some 20,000 spectators watched him fly to a height of 220 metres (720 ft). Local press reported that the land surrounded by the Brooklands Motor Racing Track was converted into an aerodrome for this event by a gang of men working day and night.[citation needed]
Touring America
In January 1910, Paulhan was invited to America to take part in airshows and competitions, at the
While attending the first American Air Meet in Los Angeles, Boeing asked nearly every aviator for a ride, but no one said yes except Paulhan. For three days Boeing waited, but on the fourth day he discovered Paulhan had already left the meet. Possibly, one of the biggest missed opportunities in Paulhan's life was the ride he never gave Boeing.[6]
From Los Angeles, Paulhan moved on to give exhibitions in San Francisco[7] and Salt Lake City, Utah, where the Deseret News headline announced that the "Air King is Here to Fly".[8] He also appeared in New Orleans and made the first aeroplane flight in Texas.
The Wright brothers' case led, on 17 February, to a Federal judge ordering Paulhan to pay $25,000 for every paid display. Furious, he cancelled his American tour and went to New York City to challenge the Wright brothers by giving public demonstration flights for free. The dispute rumbled on and in March an agreement was reached whereby he could continue to give flying exhibitions in his Farman biplane on condition that he pay a $6,000 a week bond, pending the outcome of the case. The affair threatened the planned international aviation meet to be hosted by the Aero Club of America, at which the competition for the Gordon Bennett Trophy was to be held. According to Courtlandt Field Bishop, president of the Aero Club of America, all the leading foreign aviators had assured him that they would not appear in the country until the case was decided. If Paulhan won, they would compete; if he lost they did "not care to place themselves within the jurisdiction of American courts."[9] Paulhan eventually left quietly for France.
The
Back in Europe
Returning to Europe, Paulhan continued his flying exploits. In April 1910, he won the London to Manchester air race, taking the £10,000 prize offered for flying from London to Manchester, a distance of 195 miles (314 km). This prize had been offered in 1906 by the Daily Mail for the first pilot to fly from London to Manchester within 24 hours. The flight had to start and finish within five miles of the Daily Mail office in each city, with no more than two landings en route. In 1906 this seemed an impossible feat – the best European fliers at that time could only stay aloft for seconds. Paulhan arrived in Manchester 12 hours after setting out from London, having spent 4 hours 12 minutes in the air, with an overnight stop at Lichfield, 117 miles from his starting point. He thus beat the British contender, Claude Grahame-White. There is a blue plaque on a house in Paulhan Road, Burnage, Manchester, at the site of his winning landing.[10]
In 1910, Paulhan was one of the first pilots to fly a seaplane, the Hydravion designed by Henri Fabre, and won a £10,000 prize for the most flights made in the year. He also turned his attention to aircraft design, producing the Paulhan biplane in association with Fabre, a large triplane which was flown at the 1911 French military aircraft trials competition, and the Aéro-Torpille in association with Victor Tatin.
In February 1912, he opened a seaplane flying school in Villefranche-sur-Mer before moving to Arcachon .
First World War
In the
After 1918
On demobilisation, Paulhan became a seaplane builder, building machines under licence from Curtiss. He worked at aircraft construction with engineer Pillard at the Société Provençale de Constructions Aéronautiques, building in 1928 the first all-metal seaplane in France, the SPCA Paulhan-Pillard T3 .[13] He contributed to the manufacture of Dewoitine planes. He abandoned aeronautics the day his only son, René (a test pilot), died (10 May 1937), at the presentation of the Caudron C.690 fighter plane.[14] Paulhan retired to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, which he rarely left before his death. In 1960, Paulhan was invited by Air France to be one of the passengers on its inaugural non-stop flight from Paris to Los Angeles.
In 1927, Paulhan was a co-founder of the company Société Continentale Parker (subsequently
Paulhan died on 10 February 1963 at Saint-Jean-de-Luz. He is buried in his home town of Pézenas where a monument has been erected in commemoration; a wall plaque in Rue Conti in Pézenas also recalls his achievements.
See also
Notes and references
- ^ Hérault département archives: Pézenas : registres de l'année 1880 - 1884 Archived 26 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Banquet de Aéronautique-Club de France en l'Honneur de Louis Paulhan". l'Aérophile (in French): 562. 15 December 1909.
- ^ "Concours de modèles d'Aéroplanes". l'Aérophile (in French): 171. June 1907.
- ^ "Blackpool Aviation Week Report". Flight magazine. 30 October 1909.
- ^ "Los Angeles Aviation Meet to be Emulated by Other Western Cities". The Washington Post. 23 January 1910.
- ^ "William Boeing". National Aviation Hall of Fame. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
- ^ "Air King Is Here To Fly". Deseret News. 21 January 1910. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2006.
- ^ "If Wright Brothers Win, America will Lose International Aviation Meet". Daily Journal and Tribune. 13 March 1910. Archived from the original on 18 October 2006. Retrieved 28 September 2006.
- ^ Chris Paul: Labour of Love: Burnage, Manchester: Claims to Fame
- ^ a b L'homme-vent, special issue of L'Ami de Pézenas, 2010, ISSN 1240-0084.
- ^ "Louis Paulhan, l'homme vent" (PDF). Collège Louis Paulhan à Sartrouville. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2003. Retrieved 28 September 2006.
- ^ "La SPCA". Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ISBN 9782723305297
External links
- Henri Farman, "En suivant Paulhan", La vie au grand air 7 May 1910. A detailed contemporary account of the London-Manchester air race, with several photos (in French)
- The First U.S. Airshows--the Air Meets of 1910
- Film of Paulhan being congratulated after setting endurance records at Dominguez Field on YouTube
- Paulhan in Salt Lake City
- Les hydro aéroplanes Paulhan-Curtiss Biography, hydroplane development, photos(in French)