Gustave Hermite (11 June 1863 – 9 November 1914) was a French aeronaut and physicist, pioneer with Georges Besançon of the weather balloon.

[1][2] Fond of sciences, he began studying chemistry in 1884 at the laboratory of the Academy of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, then turned to astronomy.

He then embarked on developing inventions and in 1887, he designed and made a rangefinder, then in 1888 a small captive helicopter powered by an electric motor attached to a battery on the ground.

[1][2] In 1889 he began experimenting with heavier than air aviation: small airplanes propelled by rockets or kites used as a means of traction, on water or on ice.

[2] In 1898 Léon Teisserenc de Bort organized the beginnings of systematic sounding of the atmosphere at the Trappes Observatory of Dynamic Meteorology .