System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Louis Bréguet, French aviation pioneer
January 02, 1880 - May 04, 1955
Louis-Charles Bréguet was a French airplane designer and builder, born in Paris, France on January 2, 1880. He was born into a family tradition of engineering science. He developed an early interest in the fledgling aeronautic technology and in 1905 developed a sophisticated wind tunnel in which he was able to measure and evaluate in depth the effects of airflow on airfoils. With his brother, Jacques and under the guidance of Professor Charles Richet, he began work on a gyroplane (the forerunner of the helicopter) with flexible wings in 1905. It achieved the first ascension of a vertical-flight aircraft with a pilot in 1907.
His first airplane was produced in 1909, a rugged biplane of high quality and performance. It not only became notable for establishing speed records, as it set a speed record in 1911 for its 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) flight. It also set the standards of quality accepted throughout the aviation industry. Also that year, he founded the Société des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Breguet. In 1912, Bréguet constructed his first hydroplane. He is especially known for his development of a reconnaissance airplane used by the French in World War I and through the 1920s. One of the pioneers in the construction of metal aircraft, the Breguet-14 day bomber, perhaps the most famous French warplane of all time, was made almost entirely of aluminum. As well as the French, sixteen squadrons of the American Expeditionary Force also used it. During World War I his company produced some 8000 of the famed Bréguet XIV reconnaissance aircraft.
In 1919, Louis Bréguet established a commercial air transportation company, Compagnie Des Messageries Avienne, which evolved into Air France. Under Bréguet 's technical guidance the Societe de Avions maintained prominence in the French aviation industry in production of civil and military aircraft. Over the years, he and his aircraft set several records. In 1911, he had the distinction of being the first to carry 12 people aloft in an aircraft. A Bréguet plane made the first nonstop crossing of the South Atlantic in 1927. Another made a 4,500-mile (7,242-kilometer) flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1933, the longest nonstop Atlantic flight up to that time.
In 1934, he returned to his work on the gyroplane, establishing the Syndicate for Gyroplane Studies and hiring a young engineer named Rene Dorand. With Dorand, he built a craft, called the Gyroplane Laboratoire. Throughout 1934 and 1935, Bréguet extensively modified his craft and performed ground tests. It flew by a combination of blade flapping and feathering. On December 22, 1935, it established a Federation Aeronautique Internationale speed record of 67 miles per hour (108 kilometers per hour). It was the first to demonstrate speed as well as good control characteristics. The next year, it set an altitude record of 517 feet (158 meters). His most important addition was a new system for controlling the direction of flight. By tilting the axle on which the rotors turned, pitching the rotor disk, the helicopter could be made to move forward, sideways, or even backward. He added a system for controlling the yaw of the helicopter (turning the helicopter to the left or right) by allowing the two rotors to each have a different pitch (differential collective pitch). Bréguet received an Air Ministry contract for further development but made little progress over the next several years. With war imminent, Bréguet put his craft in storage and turned his attention to the full-scale production of bombers. Bréguet remained an important manufacturer of aircraft during World War II and afterwards developed commercial transports.
Although his helicopter was ultimately destroyed in 1943 during the Allied bombing of the Villacoublay Airfield, many aviation experts consider Bréguet's aircraft to be the first completely successful helicopter.
He died on May 4, 1955 in Paris, France, at the age of 75. In 1980, Bréguet was invested in the International Aerospace Hall of Fame.
