Gustave Duverne

Gustave Louis Joseph Duverne (born March 1, 1891 in La Boulaye , † October 6, 1967 in Randan ) was a French automobile pioneer.

Life

Gustave Duverne first worked as a fighter pilot in the French air force and took part in the First World War as such . He was involved in five campaigns , sustained an injury while on duty, and was twice commended for exemplary behavior. After the war he owned a home in Beaune and married the Parisian Marcelle Eugénie Lazarine Gray. In the early 1920s, he ran a car repair shop in Tours .

In 1924/1925 Duverne undertook the Tranin-Duverne mission together with the journalist Edmond Tranin , the first west-east crossing of Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea by motor vehicle . They achieved this with a production model from the automobile manufacturer Rolland-Pilain . Gustave Duverne became one of the three new bosses of Rolland-Pilain after its founders and namesake Lucien Rolland and Emile Pilain were ousted by the company's board of directors in 1926. In 1927/1928 he undertook another spectacular automobile expedition, this time taking him from Paris to Hanoi and Saigon in Asia . On his return he found that Rolland-Pilain had gone bankrupt . He then tried in 1929, together with Lucien Rolland and Emile Pilain, to start up the company on a smaller scale, which had to cease production that same year and was converted into a spare parts store.

Subsequently, Duverne took part twice in the 24-hour race of Le Mans as a car racing driver with BNC cars : in 1931 with Robert Girod for the M. de Ricou team , where he was disqualified for premature refueling, and in 1932 with Georges Boréal for the Team Roger Labric , where he retired after nine laps. With the Duverne Saran , Duverne presented the prototype of a twin-engine light aircraft in 1935, which was further improved in the following years. For his two expeditions to Africa and Asia he published travelogues and spoke at conferences.

Works

• De l'Atlantique à l'Océan india (Konakry – Djibouti) avec la mission Tranin-Duverne, November 1st 1924– April 9th ​​1925 . With a foreword by Antonin Brocard and woodcuts by Marcel Arthaud . Gianoli et Valentin, Paris 1926.
• Sur les routes du monde: Paris, Hanoï, Saïgon . With a foreword by Dieudonné Costes . P. Fournié, Paris 1932.

Honors

• Knight of the Legion of Honor (1930)

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1931	Charles de Ricou	BNC Type 527 Sport	Robert Girod	Disqualified
1932	Roger Labric	BNC Type 527 Sport	Georges Boréal	failure	Engine failure

literature

• Fabienne Castagna: Mythe et réalité du grand reportage. La mission Tranin-Duverne, première liaison automobile de Conakry à Djibouti, November 1st 1924 - April 9th ​​1925 . Mémoire de maîtrise. Université de Poitiers, Poitiers 1991.
• Edmond Tranin: Sur le dixième parallèle . Bernard Grasset, Paris 1926.
• Henry Vallotton : L'Auto dans la brousse. Notes d'un voyage en Afrique occidentale . Fischbacher, Paris 1925.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Journal officiel de la République française . August 15, 1930, p. 9514 ( digitized from Gallica [accessed January 12, 2019]).
2. ↑ Emilie Rouilly: Série moderne, 5E, état civil, mariages. Publications, avis extérieurs, quêtes (1794–1938). Inventory . Archives municipales de Beaune, June 2013.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Rolland Pilain. Association les amis de Rolland Pilain, accessed January 12, 2019 (French). 
4. ↑ Un raid merveilleux. Sur une automobile de série, Tranin et Duverne traversent l'Afrique de l'Atlantique à la Mer Rouge . In: Le Monde Colonial Illustré . No. April 19 , 1925, p. 87 ( digitized on Gallica [accessed January 12, 2019]).
5. ↑ Gustave Duverne. In: 24-hour piste. Retrieved January 12, 2019 (French). 
6. ↑ André Frachet: Le bimoteur léger Duverne-Saran . In: Les Ailes . No. 745 , September 26, 1935, pp. 3 ( digitized on Gallica [accessed January 12, 2019]).
7. ↑ L'avion Duverne-Saran . In: Les Ailes . No. 863 , December 30, 1937, p. 15 ( digitized on Gallica [accessed January 12, 2019]).