In the lead-up to the First World War Tricornot de Rose served under Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne to develop French army aviation and experimented with mounting machine guns on aircraft.

Tricornot de Rose played a key part in the early stage of the 1916 Battle of Verdun, using groups of aircraft and continuous patrolling to establish air superiority over the German forces.

[5] He afterwards worked under Colonel (later General) Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, an artillery officer who pioneered French military aviation as a spotting aid for his guns, at the headquarters in Vincennes.

[6] Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 de Rose was appointed to command the French Army's 12th aircraft squadron.

[3][7] Tricornot de Rose's fighter squadron was equipped with six two-seater Morane-Saulnier aircraft, which was then the fastest and most manoeuvrable in French service.

De Rose was keen to ensure a continuous presence in the air to deter German aircraft and instigated a series of patrols, rotating with fresh crews every three hours.

This led to complaints from the ground troops that they felt vulnerable to aerial attack as they could not see French planes and de Rose was forced to schedule additional patrols over friendly lines.

[9] Tricornot de Rose quickly established air superiority; his squadrons were withdrawn by the end of March to support other sectors, and he was posted away.

German aircraft soon made a reappearance but measures taken by Tricornot de Rose's successor, Captain Le Révérend, restored French air superiority by May.

[8] Tricornot de Rose died on 11 May 1916 when, during a demonstration flight near Soissons, he cut his engine to perform a turn but found he was unable to restart it and crashed.