[3][7] His aeronautic career included working with Gabriel Voisin, the Seguin brothers, Henri Farman, Ernest Archdeacon and Louis Blériot.

He achieved 128.418 km/h (79.795 mph) over the 33 kilometres (21 mi) flight between Etampes and Toury in a Blériot using his own enhancements to the Gnome Omega 50 hp (37 kW) motor.

When he graduated in 1902 and required authorisations to work he discovered a mistake on his birth certificate, that his family name of 'Le Martin' had been written 'Lemartin', but he decided that it was easier to adopt the 'new' spelling.

He was a gifted and serious student who advanced quickly so that in October 1899, when he was just sixteen, he left his native Brulhois area and travelled almost 500 kilometres (310 mi) to enroll at the 'Institute of Arts et Métiers' in Aix-en-Provence where he became a Gadz'Art, the nickname given to the students and alumni of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM), a prestigious university (grande ecole) specialising in engineering.

Lemartin and Louise worked together during their joint airship project and subsequently married, upon which he adopted her daughter Jane (or Jeanne[10]) de Lambert from her first marriage.

[3] Lemartin had an early interest in ballooning and, learning from Alberto Santos-Dumont, he began to build an airship in collaboration with the Spanish aristocrat, financier, engineer, inventor and adventurer Ricardo Soriano von Hermansdorff Sholtz.

He later moved to E.N.V., and later worked for Gabriel Voisin on the structure of his early experimental glider which was towed into the air from the river Seine, flying 600 metres (2,000 ft), in 1905.

Lemartin was apparently not convinced by the Voisin approach and agreed with Louis Bleriot that the engine was key to achieving powered heavier-than-air flight in a monoplane.

[11] One of the notable events of the Grande Semaine d'Aviation held at Reims in August 1909 was the public debut of the Gnome rotary engine, and Gnome-engined aircraft won first and third places in the distance prize.

[4][5] During March 1911, he went on to increase the record to eight, then eleven, and finally thirteen passengers,[6] and including the aviators Jeanne Herveu (founder of the first flying school for women.

I had a very clear vision and next to me the passengers were installed under the wings, like the Imperial Parisian omnibus, watching the hills roll by ... and I'm happy to be their pilot.On 24 May 1911, three weeks before his death, he reportedly surpassed the world speed record, although it was never officially authorised.

)[3] On 1 June 1911, he signed a new contract with Louis Bleriot, becoming a member of the race team to compete at major events and receive one third of any prizes won.

The night before his departure from Vincennes, he was working on the machines of his teammates Gustav Hamel and Lieutenant Jean Louis Conneau (flying under the name André Beaumont) who went on to win both Le Circuit Européen and Paris-Rome.

According to The New York Times of 19 June 1911: The wind was rising at the start of the contest, and Le Martin, who was one of the most experienced aviators in France, rocked about a good deal as his machine left the ground and swept across the field.

Ernest Monis, the Prime Minister of France, who was a spectator, sent his doctor, but Lemartin died on arrival at the hospital Saint-Antoine in Vincennes.