For a number of years, Aérospatiale Gazelle was a well-known icon of the French helicopter industry. Designed and developed in the late 1960s, as a successor of Alouette rotorcraft family, the Gazelle was widely used […]
Eurocopter AS532 AL Cougar (c/n 2585, H3-72 of the Slovenian Air Force and Air Defence), exercise Dark Blade 2019, Náměšť nad Oslavou, May 2019. At the very beginning, there was a helicopter designed by Sud […]
On 7th January 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries performed the very first successful balloon flight across the English Channel (La Manche), covering the route from Dover Castle to Guînes (Guisines), Pas-de-Calais. Since the childhood, […]
On 12th November 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont performed a series of public flights, in one of them covering a distance of 200 metres. That was the very first flight officially observed by the FAI and, in […]
5th November 1917 – French record-breaking aviatrix, Jacqueline Auriol, was born. Jacqueline Marie-Thérèse Suzanne Douet, as was her maiden name, was born on 5th November 1917 in Challans, Vendée in France. She was a daughter […]
On 22nd October 1909, Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman ever to pilot a heavier-than-air, powered aircraft and also the first female pilot that performed a solo flight. Élisa Léontine Deroche, as that was […]
On 24th September 1940, the Vichy France performed its first air raid on Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Approximately sixty bombers of the Vichy French Air […]
On 27th August 1783, French scientist, professor Jacques Charles and engineers Anne-Jean Robert and Nicolas-Louis Robert, have launched the first ever hydrogen-filled balloon. Although the idea of ballooning was as old as ancient China (approximately […]
Almost sixty years ago, Transall C-160 transport aircraft took-off for its maiden flight. Officially introduced in 1967, the Franco-German airlifter is currently approaching the end its active duty. And that creates a good opportunity to […]
François Durafour, a Swiss aviation pioneer, was born on 27th November 1888 in Geneva. After completing his mechanical studies, Durafour initially worked at Ateliers Sécherons and then in 1910 he was employed as Hanriot aeroplane […]
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