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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

A well-known French aeronautical engineer, recognized for his research in the field of aerodynamics and hydrodynamics toward improving the performance of heavy French land planes and flying boats between 1934 and 1937. During 1934, in a wind tunnel of his construction, he initiated the first tests on motorized models, leading to new designs of some tail surfaces. In that same year he headed a committee establishing specifications for the first French commercial flying boat for North Atlantic crossings.
As chief engineer of a French transatlantic airline, was responsible for the successful round-trips of two six-engine commercial flying boats,-- the largest at that time— between New York and the French coast—including the first non-stop flight in this category between the two continents. In 1939 prepared three four-engine land planes having flight refueling systems and cockpits supercharged with oxygen —which, barring the war, would have inaugurated in 1940 the fastest intercontinental air mail services .
In 1937 and 1938 he assisted the management of Pan American and American Export Airlines in preparing for their flight facilities in France, and in 1941 became part of the operation set up by American Export Airline in New York, transporting US Navy's officers and materiel to Ireland and North Africa. After the war, while head of European Research and Supply as well as the Aircraft Exchange Companies, re-activated the fleet of Air France, also supplying Air Afrique and other foreign companies with American planes and parts necessary for their operation.
He held the rank of officer in the French Legion of Honor,, was a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an Eagle member of the Wings Club.