BREGUET, LOUIS-CHARLES

born Jan. 2, 1880, Paris died May 4, 1955, Paris French airplane builder, many of whose planes set world records, and founder of Air France. Brguet was educated at the Lyce Condorcet and Lyce Carnot and at the cole Suprieure d'lectricit. He joined the family engineering firm, Maison Brguet, becoming head engineer of its electric service. Brguet built his first airplane in 1909, set a speed record for a flight of 10 kilometres in 1911, and in that year founded the Socit des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Brguet. In 1912 he constructed his first hydroplane and in 1917 designed and flew a gyroplane, the forerunner of the helicopter. During World War I he manufactured military planes; his Brguet-XIX was especially noteworthy. In 1919 he founded the Compagnie des Messageries Ariennes, which ultimately became Air France. A Brguet plane made the first nonstop crossing of the South Atlantic in 1927; another made a 4,500-mile flight across the Atlantic in 1933, the longest nonstop Atlantic flight up to that time. Brguet remained an important manufacturer of military planes during World War II and afterward produced a series of large four-engined transports.