On 13th May 1930, Jean Mermoz, French aviation pioneer, opened the south transatlantic postal line, from Saint-Louis in Senegal to Natal, Brazil, flying in Latécoère 28 floatplane.
Jean Mermoz was born on 9th December 1901 in Aubenton, Aisne. His childhood was not easy, marked by separation of his parents and then the Great War. During his early years, Jean Mermoz was rather aiming for vocational studies than aviation, but it all changed in 1920, when he joined the army on a four-year contract.
However, it initially seemed that Mermoz was not born for flying. He was facing several problems while trying to pass the initial course, crashed a few aircraft and suffered some fractures. Finally, in February of 1921, Mermoz successfully made a solo flight without crashing any aeroplane, completed the training and was promoted to corporal.
Then he was assigned to the 7th squadron, one of the French combat units in the Middle East and spent almost two years there. For the young pilot it meant a time full of adventures and intensive flying. Within eighteen months, Mermoz clocked more than 600 flying hours and performed several emergency landings in desert, as well as deep into the enemy territory.
After being discharged from active military service, Mermoz started his new career as an aviation mechanic but shortly thereafter passed an internal pilot exam and then, as a civilian pilot, was assigned to Toulouse-Barcelona line. In 1925, he was assigned to Barcelona-Malaga route and one year later, took over flights between Casablanca and Dakar.
Since the year 1927, Mermoz was, step by step, increasing the range of Latécoère postal service. In October of that year, together with Élisée Négrin, he completed a non-stop flight from Toulouse to Saint-Louis in Senegal, flying a Latécoère 26-2R named Spirit of Montaudran – a clear reference to Spirit of St. Louis of Charles Lindbergh.
In the summer of 1930, Mermoz – together with his crew of Léopold Gimié as radiooperator and Jean Dabry as navigator – began a series of training flights as a preparation for crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Mermoz chose a Latécoère 28.3 floatplane for the trip and named the aircraft Comte-de-la-Vaulx, in honour of Henry de la Vaulx who died in an aeroplane crash. On 12th May 1930, Mermoz and his crew took-off from Saint-Louis in Senegal and, after 21 hours and 10 minutes of flight, successfully landed at Natal, Brazil.
On 7th December 1936, Jean Mermoz took-off in a Latécoère 300 F-AKGF, named Croix-du-Sud (English: Southern Cross) for another transatlantic flight. He never reached his destination and final fate of the French aviation pioneer still remains a mystery, as no traces of the aircraft or the crew were ever found.
Full story here.
Cover photo: Latécoère 28 aircraft from ´NACA aircraft circular No. 112´, 1930 (source: NASA, 19930090389, public domain)
