Louis Charles Breguet
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
designer and builder, one of the early aviation pioneers.
Biography
In 1902, Louis married Nelly Girardet, the daughter of painter Eugene Girardet . They had five children together.In 1905, with his brother Jacques, and under the guidance of Charles Richet, he began work on a gyroplane
Breguet-Richet Gyroplane
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Young, Warren R. The Helicopters. "The Epic of Flight". Chicago: Time-Life Books, 1982. ISBN 0-8094-3350-8....
(the forerunner of the helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
) with flexible wings. It achieved the first ascent of a vertical-flight aircraft with a pilot in 1907. His first aircraft, which he built in 1909, set a speed record in 1911 for its 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) flight. Also that year, he founded the Société Anonyme des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Breguet
Société Anonyme des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Breguet
The Société des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Bréguet also known as Breguet Aviation was a former French aircraft manufacturer. The company was set up in 1911 by aviation pioneer Louis Charles Breguet....
. In 1912, Breguet constructed his first hydroplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
.
He is especially known for his development of reconnaissance aircraft used by the French in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and through the 1920s. One of the pioneers in the construction of metal aircraft, the Breguet 14
Breguet 14
-See also:-References:*Tomasz J. Kowalski, Samolot Breguet 14, TBiU no.197, Warsaw 2002, ISBN 83-11-09461-6...
day bomber, perhaps the most famous French warplane of all time, was made almost entirely of aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
. As well as the French, sixteen squadrons of the American Expeditionary Force also used it. A plane of this type has a major role in the plot of the 1927 thriller So Disdained
So Disdained
So Disdained is the second published novel by British author, Nevil Shute. It was first published in 1928 by Cassell & Co, then republished in 1951 by William Heinemann and issued in paperback by Pan Books in 1966....
by Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute Norway was a popular British-Australian novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer. He used his full name in his engineering career, and 'Nevil Shute' as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from any potential negative publicity in connection with his novels.-...
.
In 1919, he founded the Compagnie des Messageries Aeriennes
Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes
Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes was a pioneering French airline which was in operation form 1919 - 23, when it was merged with Grands Express Aériens to form Air Union.-History:...
, which evolved into Air France
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
.
Over the years, his aircraft set several records. A Breguet plane made the first nonstop crossing of the South Atlantic in 1927. Another made a 4500 miles (7,242 km) flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1933, the longest nonstop Atlantic flight up to that time.
He returned to his work on the gyroplane in 1935. Created with co-designer René Dorand, the craft, called the Gyroplane Laboratoire
Gyroplane Laboratoire
-External links:* -See also:...
, flew by a combination of blade flapping and feathering. On December 22, 1935, it established a speed record of 67 mph (108 km/h). 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 m).
Breguet remained an important manufacturer of aircraft during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and afterwards developed commercial transports. Breguet’s range equation, for determining aircraft range
Range (aircraft)
The maximal total range is the distance an aircraft can fly between takeoff and landing, as limited by fuel capacity in powered aircraft, or cross-country speed and environmental conditions in unpowered aircraft....
, is also named after him.
He died of a heart attack in 1955 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the centre.Inhabitants are called Saint-Germanois...
.