Ernest Failloubaz

Ernest Failloubaz (born July 21, 1892 in Avenches , † May 14, 1919 in Lausanne ) was a Swiss aviation pioneer.

Life

Failloubaz was the son of a wealthy wine merchant and mayor of Vallamand. After the early death of his father, he moved with his mother and a half-sister to Avenches, where his mother and her mother ran their parents' bakery. In 1902 he became an orphan and inherited a large fortune.

Failloubaz invested all of his fortune in building a flight school and aircraft factory in Avenches. In 1919 he died completely impoverished of tuberculosis in the Lausanne Cantonal Hospital .

Role in Swiss aviation

On May 10, 1910, Failloubaz was the first to fly with a Swiss-made aircraft designed by René Grandjean . Because of his young age, they called Failloubaz "le gamin volant (the flying child). On May 15, Grandjean himself attempted a flight which destroyed the machine. On September 28, 1910, Failloubaz took a flight from Avenches to Payerne in a Blériot With this 6-minute flight, Failloubaz succeeded in making the first flight from city to city within Switzerland , followed by a flight day at the newly established airfield in Avenches on October 2nd and a flight meeting from October 8-10 in Bern , where Failloubaz had the first Received a Swiss pilot license.

In September 1911, the Swiss Army carried out the first reconnaissance flights. On the fifth mission Failloubaz and observer Gustave Lecoultre had to make an emergency landing of the rented Dufaux aircraft. The attempt to demonstrate the advantages of aerial reconnaissance had therefore failed for the time being.

For health reasons Failloubaz was not recruited and used as a military pilot during World War I.

Honors

Memorial stone in the city of Avenches from 1942

A monument erected by the Societé de Développement d'Avenches has stood in the courtyard of the Avenches Castle since 1942 . In 1960 the city of Avenches erected a memorial on the Payerne military airfield to commemorate the first flight from city to city On March 4, 2010, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Swiss aviation, the Swiss Post issued the Ernest Failloubaz special stamp worth 85 cents.

literature

• Henry Sarraz: Pilote no 1… ou le gamin volant: Histoire étrange et authentique du premier aviateur suisse et de son aérodrome. Cornaz, Yverdon-les-Bains 1964.
• Yvan Dailain: Le tragique destin du pilote Failloubaz. Certificate suisse de vol. no 1. Mon Village, Sainte-Croix 2007, ISBN 978-2-88194-093-4 .

Web links

Commons : Ernest Failloubaz  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Gilbert, Marion: Failloubaz, Ernest. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Swiss Air Force: History of Payerne Airfield - 1910–1919: Ernest Failloubaz . Retrieved May 13, 2010.
• Peter Winkler: Swiss aviation pioneers from the very beginning. Part 1 (PDF file; 887 kB), in: Cockpit 2008 (7), pp. 44–45 and Part 2 (PDF file; 924 kB), in: Cockpit 2008 (8), pp. 46–47. Retrieved May 14, 2010.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Winkler: Swiss Aviation Pioneers of the First Hour, Part 1  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 887 kB). In: cockpit. 7/2008, p. 44 f. Retrieved May 14, 2010.  
2. ^ Marion Gilbert: Ernest Failloubaz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . March 27, 2006 , accessed June 16, 2019 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Winkler: Swiss Aviation Pioneers from the very beginning, Part 2  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 924 kB). In: cockpit. 8/2008, p. 47. Retrieved May 14, 2010.  
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Swiss Air Force: History of the Payerne Airfield - 1910–1919: Ernest Failloubaz ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 13, 2010.  
5. ↑ Peter Winkler: Swiss Aviation Pioneers of the First Hour, Part 2  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 924 kB). In: cockpit. 8/2008, p. 46. Retrieved May 14, 2010.  
6. ↑ Swiss Air Force: The First Swiss Military Flight ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Avenches Tourisme: Medieval old town ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 14, 2010 .; See also illustration. 
8. ↑ Die Post: New Releases ( Memento of the original dated February 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 14, 2010