Louis Béchereau

Louis Béchereau (25 July 1880; Plou, Cher – 18 March 1970; Paris) was a pioneer of French aviation.

Biography

After having attended the École nationale professionnelle in Vierzon, he went to the Arts et Métiers in Angers in 1896. He finished his studies in 1901 and before joining the army took part in a model making competition organised by L'Auto. Béchereau took first prize for a model subsequently manufactured for sale in Parisian department stores.

Demobilised in 1902, Béchereau joined a mechanical construction factory in Bezons where he took part in the development of a prototype car designed by Clément Ader. He took a number of trial flights with the Ader Éole or Avion.

In 1903, a nephew of Clément Ader in Levallois had created the Société de Construction d'Appareils Aériens. In 1909, a client of the firm, Armand Deperdussin, had ordered the construction of an aeroplane that was exhibited in the windows of the Bon Marché store in Paris. In 1910, Deperdussin founded the Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin (SPAD) and appointed Béchereau to take charge of the technical side.

From the beginning, Béchereau conceived of monocoque fuselages. These would allow hitherto unthinkable levels of performance. His direct collaborators, Louis Janoir, chief pilot, and André Herbemont, were also graduates of the Arts et Métiers. Béchereau's revolutionary concept allowed the Deperdussin firm to win many prizes, including the famous Gordon Bennett Trophy in 1912 with Jules Védrines at the controls.

In 1911, one of his collaborators was the Dutch pioneer Frederick Koolhoven, the future Chief Engineer and Works Manager of British Deperdussin and the builder of numerous Dutch aeroplanes.

Following a financial scandal involving the company's founder, Louis Blériot took over the company in 1914 and renamed it Société Pour l'Aviation et ses Dérivés, keeping the initials SPAD. Béchereau remained chief designer and developed numerous models, including the famous SPAD S.XIII.

During the First World War, when Georges Guynemer received his first SPAD S.VII equipped with a Hispano-Suiza motor on 27 August 1916, he wrote to Louis Béchereau the next day praising the wonders of this new aeroplane. The air combat ace Guynemer thereafter had a long technical correspondence with Béchereau who he called the "ace of constructors" (« l’as des constructeurs »). It was Guynemer who later presented Béchereau with the medal of the Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur on 12 July 1917 in the SPAD works, in the presence of the Minister of War. (Citation : " Vous avez donné la suprématie aérienne à votre pays, et vous aurez une grande part dans la victoire. C'est un splendide titre de gloire. C'est avec le sentiment de l'admiration et de la grande reconnaissance que nous vous devons tous, que je vous donne l'accolade ".)

Béchereau left SPAD to create the Société des Avions Bernard (known as Société des trois B) with Bernard and Birkigt (founder of Hispano-Suiza). He also collaborated with the Salmson motor company and, in 1931, joined the carriage-builder Georges Kellner to create the Kellner-Béchereau company. On the eve of the Second World War, he conceived a monoplane, the K.B.E 60, for the French Navy; its development was frustrated by events.

The factory was destroyed by bombing in 1942 and the Kellner-Béchereau company was then merged into Morane-Saulnier. Béchereau remained a director until his retiremnt in 1950.

Decorations

Sources

Article by Frédéric Champlon in Arts et Métiers magazine, April 2003 (see external links).

External links