Louis Bréguet is one of France’s most famous aviation pioneers. Together with his brother Jacques and Charles Richet, he worked on the “gyroplane”, a predecessor of the helicopter. In 1907, their craft performed the world’s first vertical flight, hovering about 50 cm. above the ground. From 1909 on, Bréguet concentrated on conventional aircraft. In 1917, he developed the Bréguet 14, possibly France’s most famous military aircraft of all time. The biplane, which was used for reconnaissance and bombing, was used by the French, Belgian and American air forces during World War I, and remained popular post-war. Bréguet was also involved in commercial aviation, establishing an air mail carrier that would go on to merge with Air France. In the 1930s, he returned to his first love, vertical flight. His “Gyroplane Laboratoire” (1935) was considered the first practical helicopter. After his death, the Bréguet factory was acquired by Dassault. His name still lives on, however, in a mathematical formula to determine the range of an airplane. Apart from flying, Bréguet loved to sail, and he entered his own yacht “Namoussa” in the 1924 Olympic 8-metre class. With his crew of four, he gained a bronze in the five-boat field.
France