HENRI PEQUET 1888-1974

Henri Pequet Ready to leave Allahabad aboard a Sommer airplane with a 50 hp Gnôme engine, February 18, 1911. Courtesy of Musée Air France From the Civilization.ca website

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES via email from Dave Lam, 10-27-06      Born 1 Feb 1888 at Bracquemont, France Died 13 March 1974 at Vichy, France       He started his aviation career as a balloonist. He joined the Voisin Company as an employee in 1908, and subsequently made his first flight at Hamburg in 1909. Earned his French license ( #88) 10 June 1910.       On 18 Feb 1911, he flew a Sommer airplane in the first heavier than air airmail delivery between Allahabad and Naini in India.       During the first world war, he was employed at Morane-Saulnier, and was sent to Russia to help them after the purchase of M-S aircraft. He returned to France in 1918 to become the chief pilot of M-S. Before the second world war, he became a pilot instructor and the director of the airfield at Vichy-Rhue. He worked in the resistence during the war, was captured and deported in April 1943. After the war, he was the director of the Vichy airport. Dave

 

FIRST AIRMAIL FLIGHT - 1911 "Henri Pequet (born 1888) was a pilot in the first official airmail flight on February 18, 1911. The 23 year old Frenchman, in India for an airshow, delivered about 6,500 letters when he flew from Allahabad to Naini, about 10 kilometers away. He flew a Sommer biplane with about fifty horsepower (37 kW), and made the journey in thirteen minutes. The letters were marked "First Aerial Post, U.P. Exhibition Allahabad 1911." from the Nationmaster encyclopedia website Courtesy of Roy Nagl, 8-21-05

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Henri Pequet +airmail", using the Google search engine, (8-25-05), you will find about 264 links! Perhaps the most helpful are the following.

dkpna story of the first airmail       am indebted to my friend Roy Nagl for alerting me to this website. This page, a production of the Dakshina Kannada Philatelic Association, offers a very complete history of the first airmail flight. It is profusely illustrated with some very interesting photographs and is well worth a visit. You can access the site by clicking on the title above.

 

The First Postal Flight      This page on the Civilization.ca website offers a brief revue of the flight. It also includes two photographs from the collection of the Musée Air France which show Pequet and his plane. You can access the page by clicking on the title above.

 

Henri Pequet died in 1974.   Editor's Note: If you have any more information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

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