Bernard Astraud

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Bernard Astraud ( 1922 - 1985 ) was a French pilot and entrepreneur.

life and career

Astraud studied electrical engineering and was a pilot during the Second World War . In 1946, while working as an electrical engineer at the Pont du Sud company in Toulon , he met Jean de Heaulme from Madagascar (not to be confused with his cousin General Jean de Heaulme from La Réunion , who was a young officer in a paratrooper special unit in Indochina in 1954 and later the Angel von Dien Bien Phu will marry Geneviève de Galard Terraub ). He completed an internship at Pont du Sud before his military service. Astraud taught him to fly in Cuers in the south of France . When the de Heaulmes, who owned large sisal plantations in southern Madagascar, set up a sisal spinning mill in Fort Dauphin in 1953, Jean de Heaulme persuaded his friend to take up the post of electrical engineer. However, he founded a flight school in Behara, Madagascar. In October 1953 he transferred together with Jean de Heaulme and Jacques Lalut (* 1923), the "little prince of Madagascar" and founder of Air Madagascar and Henry de Heaulmes (* 1899; † 1986), on a flight, who was engaged to his sister Huguette history makes twenty-four single-engine de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk two-seaters from Bulawayo in Rhodesia via Lumbo and Juan de Nova on the Mozambique Strait to Fort Dauphin (now Taolanaro ). Astraud built central power plants for Fort Dauphin, Farafangana and Ambalavao. In 1957 he set up the sisal weaving factory SIFOR and the Diffusion Industrielle de Madagascar Usine de batteries au plomb (DIFMAD) in Fort Dauphin to build machines and sisal factories and also founded an air rescue service. In Amboasary he repeatedly demonstrated his flying skills by flying in front of an astonished audience under the new RN 13 bridge over the Mandrare, which is only 16 meters high.

In 1963, Bernard Astraud founds Air Djibouti in Djibouti with machines he bought from Fort Dauphin Aeroclub . The airline started operating in April 1964 with a Bristol 170 Wayfarer , a double-decker De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide ( DH.89A ) and two twin-engine Beechcraft Model 18 low- wing aircraft . At first, Dikhil , Obock and Tadjoura were served. With a newly acquired Douglas DC-3 , Dire Dawa , Aden , Addis Ababa and Taizz in Yemen were added. The company developed so successfully that three more DC-3s can be bought from Middle East Airlines . Additional income from mail flights, charter and pilgrimage flights to Mecca made it possible in 1969 to procure another five Aérospatiale SA-319 Alouette III helicopters. As part of a necessary restructuring, Astraud Air Djibouti sold to France in 1970, but remained a shareholder until 1981 , even after France had sold the company to the Djibouti government in 1977 after independence. He went back to France and founded the first leasing company that leased helicopters to the industry. During a demonstration flight, he wanted to show how a helicopter can be used to quickly bring a mechanic to a combine that had failed during harvest. He overlooked a power line and fell, killing him.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Le "Petit Prince" de Madagascar, http://madagascarile.free.fr/Le%20pilote,Vazaha%20Rouplane.html
  2. ↑ cf. 417, "The Malagasy Republic: Madagascar today" by Virginia Thompson, Richard Adloff
  3. ↑ cf. "Le livre d'or de l'aviation malgache" by Jean Pierre Pénette & Christine Pénette Lohau
  4. ^ "Lords and Lemurs: Mad Scientists, Kings With Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar," by Alison Jolly
  5. ↑ cf. Aviation History, 1967, Air Djibouti SA, http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1967/1967%20-%200568.html
  6. ^ "Lords and Lemurs: Mad Scientists, Kings With Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar," by Alison Jolly
personal data
SURNAME Astraud, Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French pilot and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 1922
DATE OF DEATH 1985