Henri Guillaumet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henri Guillaumet (29 May 1902 at Bouy, near Châlons-en-Champagne - 27 November 1940 in the Mediterranean) was a French aviator.

He was a pioneer of French aviation in the Andes, the South Atlantic and the north Atlantic. He contributed to the opening up of numerous new routes and is considered as probably the best pilot of his age. "I've never known a greater one," said Didier Daurat, owner of Aéropostale. («Je n'en ai pas connu de plus grand.»)

On Friday 13 June 1930, while crossing the Andes for the 92nd time, he crashed his Potez 25 at Laguna Diamante because of bad weather. He walked for a week, over three mountain passes. Though tempted to give up, he persisted while thinking of his wife, Noëlle. He reached a village whose inhabitants could not believe his story («Es imposible»). This expolit made him stand out among the 'stars' of Aéropostale.

To Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who had come to find him, he said: "What I have done, I swear to you, no other animal could have done." (« Ce que j'ai fait, je te le jure, aucune bête ne l'aurait fait ».

After a number of south Atlantic crossings, he was appointed managing director of Air France.

On 27 November 1940, while flying to Syria with Jean Chiappe, the new French High Commissioner to the Levant, his four-engined Farman aircraft Le Verrier was shot down by an Italian fighter over the Mediterranean.

In 1995, Futuroscope paid homage to Guillaumet with a 3D IMAX film by Jean-Jacques Annaud : Wings of Courage (les Ailes du Courage). Guillaumet was played by Craig Sheffer.