Émile Dorand

In an engineering regiment, he met the airship pioneer Charles Renard, and was soon authorised to direct free balloon flights.

In that year he patented the design of an undercarriage shock absorber, which appears to be present on his powered kite or Dirigible Biplane, possibly named the Laboratoire, of 1909. which completely failed to fly.

[5] Dorand left the STAé on 11 January 1918, and was appointed the Inspector General of Tests and Technical Studies at the French Ministry of War.

Less than a year later he was promoted to Colonel and became the head of the French delegation of the Interallied Commission for Aeronautical Control in Germany.

During these activities he courted controversy by suggesting that Hugo Junkers be brought to France to assist in the development of metal aircraft construction techniques.

They had one son, René Dorand, born in 1898, who from 1931 to 1938 worked with Louis Charles Breguet on the development of helicopters, particularly the Bréguet-Dorand Gyroplane Laboratoire.

He also wrote press articles attempting to restore the reputation of his father, recalling his important advances in French aeronautics.