GABRIEL ESPANET 1883-1972

Gabriel Espanet from Premiers pilotes d'essais par Gérard Hartmann

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES via email from David Lam, 10-11-07 Ralph,      No idea on death, but he earned French license # 532 on 1 July 1911. He was born on 17 Feb 1883 in Marseilles. Dave

 

THE ANJOU CIRCUIT, 1912      In 1912, Legagneux tries a return in the French air meetings. The first great competition in which he participates is the circuit of Anjou race, organized by the Rene brothers and Pierre Gasnier of Frène and by the Aero club of France, in June 1912. The circuit of Anjou is a triangle , Angers - Saumur - Cholet, of 156 km, to be covered between 9 in the morning and 19 hours in the evening, three times on Sunday June 16 and four times the following day, for a total of 1,100 kilometers. The premiums are high: the winner gains 50 000 francs (price of the Aero club), plus 20 000 francs for the race speed. Competitors in the Circuit of Anjou, 1912, Competing for the Grand Prize of the Aero club of France. (Source: The Air Review).      Roland Garros, piloting his Blériot, has only one 1911 monoplane with a Gnome 50 ch engine. His machine is n° 6 in this race. The Britisher Gustav Hamel, in a Blériot n° 7, already has the new Gnome 80.

No. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Pilot Gaubert Labouret Tabuteau Espanet Bedel Garros Hamel Brindejonc Bobba Renaux Bielovucic Allard Legagneux Hanouille Mouthiere Obre Audemars J Védrines Hélen Molla Wynmalen Wagner Frey Ehrmann Labouchére Renaux Laugarot Fischer Mesguich Vidart Verstraeten Pierre Béard Bielovucic Divétain Grazzioli

Apparatus Astra Astra Morane-Salunier Nieuport Morane-Saulnier Blériot Blériot Morane-Saulnier Morane-Saulnier Farman Voisin Caudron Zens Blériot Morane-Saulnier Monoplan Blériot Deperdussin Nieuport REP Breguet Hanriot Hanriot Deperdussin Zodiac M Farman M Farman H Farman Morane-Saulnier Deperdussin Sommer Blériot De Marcay Ladougne Blériot

Motor Renault 90 ch Renault 70 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 50 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 70 ch Antoinette 60 ch Anzani 100 ch Antoinette 50 ch Anzani 60 ch Gnome 80 ch GNome 70 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 100 ch Gnome 80 ch REP 75 ch Canton-U 80 ch Gnome 70 ch Gnome 70 ch Gnome 100 ch Clerget 100 ch Renault 90 ch Renault 70 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 80 ch Gnome 100 ch Anzani 60 ch Anzani 60 ch Anzani 100 ch Gnome 80 ch Anzani 60 ch

In consequence of the bad weather, the race was a catastrophe. Allard destroyed his biplane on the takeoff, as did Biélovucic. Bedel made a "wooden horse" on takeoff; Hélen and the Legagneux-Martinet crew gave up on the first turn. Only four aeroplanes left on June 16, Garros' Blériot, Hélen's Nieuport, the Morane-Saulnier and Legagneux. Only four pilots managed to make the first turn because of the wind and the rain: Garros, Hamel, Espanet and Brindejonc of Moulinais. But the race became even less interesting; Espanet broke down in Cholet (the Maineet-Loire) in the second turn. After the second turn, there remained only two competitors: Garros (Blériot) and Brindejonc des Moulinais, (Morane-Saulnier), who arrived in time. Garros was the only one to make the third turn.

 

Gabriel Espanet Library of Congress Collection, 1-6-11

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Gabriel Espanet" +aviation , using Google, (9-25-07), you will find five very helpful links.

Gabriel Espanet      This website offers a very interesting and comprehensive story of Gabriel Espanet, one of the famous French aviators of the time. Unfortunately for those of us who only read English, the text is entirely in French. You can access the original article by clicking on the title above. You may want to scroll down to page 15 of this pdf file to find his story.      However, for my own benefit, and that of my English-speaking visitors, I have tried to translate some portions of the article. You can read the machine-translated article by clicking on: English Version

 

Espanet died in 1972

 

Editor's Note: If you have any more information on any of these pioneer aviators, please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

Back