Charles Alexandre Maurice Joseph Marie Jules Stanislas Jacques, Count de Lambert, was one of the first French aviation pioneers. He was born in 1865 in Funchal, the largest city of Madeira, but spent his childhood in Pau, France. It was there that he became friends with Paul Tissandier, the son of the well-known French scientist and aeronaut Gaston Tissandier.
In 1891, de Lambert graduated from a technical school and became an engineer. Shortly afterwards, he began developing hydrofoils and, in 1907, took part in a motorboat competition in Monaco with a boat of his own design.
In 1908, de Lambert met Wilbur Wright, who come to France to perform demonstration flights. The Wright aeroplane immediately sparked interest of the young engineer. Soon afterwards, de Lambert asked Wilbur Wright to teach him to fly.
The French aviation pioneer completed his first flying lesson on 28th October 1908, performing three flights in a two-seat Wright biplane, lasting 12, 8 and 15 minutes respectively. In March of the following year, after twenty-three training flights, de Lambert performed his first solo flight.
Soon afterwards, Charles de Lambert bought two Wright Model A aircraft. One of his first aviation ventures was to participate in the Daily Mail competition to cross the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine. On 18th October 1909, de Lambert made aviation history by becoming the first person to fly around the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
In June 1910, de Lambert took part in an aviation meeting held by the French Aero Club in Issy-les-Moulineaux. According to press reports of the time, his outstanding and thrilling flying display excited the crowd so much that security forces had to be called in to calm the spectators down.
However, the hydrofoils with which de Lambert had begun his engineering career remained his main passion. In 1913, a boat he designed together with Paul Tissandier set the world water speed record, achieving 98.6 km/h.
Charles de Lambert increasingly devoted himself to hydrofoil development and, at the end of the Great War, eventually ceased his aviation activities. Initially, his boat manufacturing company, Société anonyme des hydroglisseurs, enjoyed commercial success and sold several powerful hydrofoils to Indochina and West Africa. Nevertheless, this means of transport failed to gain significant popularity, and de Lambert’s business soon collapsed.
Within a short time, Charles de Lambert – once a popular and admired French aviation pioneer – faded into obscurity. He died impoverished and forgotten on 26th February 1944, aged seventy-eight.
More information about the facts and individuals mentioned above can be found in our previous articles from the aviation history series:
- 2 February 1872 – maiden flight of Dupuy de Lôme dirigible balloon,
- 19 July 1909 – Hubert Latham makes the first attempt to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane,
- 25 July 1909 – Louis Blériot performs the first successful flight across the English Channel,
- 18 October 1909 – Charles de Lambert circles the Eiffel Tower.
Cover photo: Charles de Lambert in the Wright flyer, during his flying course at Pau (Bibliothèque nationale de France, ark:/12148/btv1b9018989x, cropped)
