Paul Marcel Teste was a French

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...

 Navy officer aviator, notable for the first aeronaval landing of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

 aboard the Béarn

French aircraft carrier Béarn

Béarn was a unique aircraft carrier which served with the Marine nationale in World War II and beyond.Béarn was commissioned in 1927 and was the only aircraft carrier produced by France until after World War II. She was to be an experimental ship and should have been replaced in the 1930s by two...

.

Teste was born to a family of naval soldiers, and entered the École Navale

École Navale

The École Navale is the French Naval Academy in charge of the education of the officers of the French Navy.The academy was founded in 1830 by the order of King Louis-Philippe...

 in 1909, aged 17. He was made a midshipman in 1911, and was promoted to enseigne de vaisseau 2e classe in 1912.

Teste joined the Aviation Navale

Aviation Navale

French Naval Aviation of the French Navy includes 206 aircraft and 6,800 men, both civilians and military personnel. They operate from six airbases, five of them in Metropolitan France and one overseas....

 in 1917. He was shot down on the 26 May and was taken prisoner in Karlsruhe. After a first unsuccessful escape attempt, he managed to rejoin France in January 1918.

At the end of the war, Teste was appointed to lead efforts to constitute a carrier-based air force, the Aviation d'Escadre ("Squadron aviation"). On 20 October 1920, Teste landed on the Béarn off Toulon

Toulon

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

.

Promoted to captaine de corvette in 1923, he pioneered the French efforts to design aircraft carriers. In 1924, Teste flew an FBA 17 across France to chart waterplans usable as emergency landing spots for flying boats in distress.

Teste was killed on an Amiot 120

Amiot 120

|-References:*-External links:* at Aviafrance-See also:...

 in a training flight for an attempt at crossing the Atlantic.

Honours

• The seaplane tender Commandant Teste
  Commandant Teste
  Commandant Teste was a large seaplane tender of the French Navy built before World War II. She was designed to be as large as possible without counting against the Washington Treaty limits...
  
  was named in his honour.
• Legion of Honour
• Croix de Guerre
  Croix de guerre
  The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
  
  , Mentioned in Despatches at the Order of the Army