Charles Weymann

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Charles Weymann as a pilot (1910)

Charles Torrès Weymann (born August 2, 1889 in Port-au-Prince , Haiti , † 1976 in Paris ) was an aviation pioneer and entrepreneur.

Family and youth

Charles Weymann was the son of a US father whose ancestors came from Alsace and a Haitian mother. There are only conjectures about his origins and his childhood: it is assumed that his mother was Cornelie Miot, the daughter of Charles Miot and Lesinska Cecile Rivière (1829–1908). According to this, Bienaimé Rivière , known as Papa Mémé , at that time the richest resident of Haiti, who owned shipping lines among other things, would have been his great-uncle. It is also believed that his maternal family financed his flight adventures. His grandparents lived in Paris, where they also died. Weymann is said to have been born on a ship near Haiti. He was fluent in English and French, and was likely to have both US and French citizenship. He himself lived in France almost his entire life and was a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

Weymann as a flight pioneer

In 1909, Weymann received the number 24 pilot's license from the American Aero Club. In August 1910, he took part in the Circuit de l'Est French flying competition. In September 1910 he started the Prix ​​Michélin from Paris to Puy de Dôme (around 400 kilometers), but had to land after seven hours - ten kilometers from the finish - due to bad weather. In 1911 he started on a flight from Paris to Rome and on the Circuit Européen and won the Gordon Bennett Cup for aviation for the United States . In November of the same year he won the Concours Militaire in Reims .

During the First World War , Weymann worked as a test pilot for the Nieuport company .

Inventor and entrepreneur

Stutz 4.9 liter Blackhawk

After the war, Charles Weyman used his knowledge of aircraft frame construction to develop his own system for the production of car bodies, in which artificial leather was stretched over wooden frames, the so-called Weymann body . He opened production facilities in Paris (1921), London (1923) and Indianapolis (1928). Demand was great, and Weymann issued licenses for its system to numerous European companies.

In 1928 , a team from Weymann, consisting of drivers Édouard Brisson and Robert Bloch , took second place in the overall standings at the Le Mans 24-hour race on a Stutz DV16 Blackhawk . Also in 1929 a car registered by Weymann started in Le Mans, this time the Stutz, driven by Brisson and Louis Chiron , retired prematurely.

At the end of the 1920s, the demand for Weymann products decreased, which eventually disappeared from the market. A new system was developed in which metal plates were fitted between the frames, but it was not suitable for mass production. The French factory closed in 1930 and the one in Indianapolis the following year. The British factory for the production of bus bodies remained under the name Metro Cammell Weymann as a company, from which Weymann withdrew himself in 1932.

Charles Weymann then concentrated on the development of accessories for the auto industry. In 1963 he got a patent for an automatic clutch . He also turned back to aviation and, together with the engineer Georges Lepère, designed several aircraft models such as the Weymann 66 and gyrocopter in the Société des Avions CT Weymann .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ralph S. Cooper: Charles Weymann. In: earlyaviators.com. Retrieved October 26, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Weymann’s Splendid Cross-Country Passenger Flight. (pdf) In: Flight. September 17, 1910, pp. 748-749 , accessed October 26, 2018 (English).
  3. ^ Gordon-Bennett Competition. (pdf, 284 kB) In: Flight. July 8, 2011, p. 589 , accessed October 26, 2018 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Weymann, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weymann, Charles Torrès (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American aviation pioneer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Port-au-Prince , Haiti
DATE OF DEATH 1976
Place of death Paris