[1][2] Étienne Maurice Michelin was born at Clermont-Ferrand in central southern France.
He was born nine years after the founding in the city, by his uncle and father, of the family tyre manufacturing business.
[3] A qualified test pilot, Étienne Michelin took off on the late afternoon of 27 August 1932 from the Aulnat Aerodrome at the controls of his 85 hp Morane mono-plane and headed towards the nearby Chaîne des Puys, a group of former volcanoes in the Massif Central.
[4] Caught up in a storm, he crashed at Saint-Genès-Champanelle a short distance from the Puy de Dôme (lava dome) and was killed in the accident.
[3] Press reports at the time suggested that, caught up in thick fog, he had misjudged his altitude.