In 1900 brothers Jacques and Louis Breguet were running a factory producing electric motors and dynamos at La Brayelle.

The first product was the Bréguet-Richet Gyroplane No.1, a machine with four sets of four biplane rotors driven by a 50 horsepower (37 kW) engine.

On 29 September 1907 it rose vertically to a height of two feet (0.6m), steadied by four assistants – the first ever manned helicopter flight, but it was completely uncontrollable.

This was badly damaged in a hard landing, and was used as the basis for the model 2bis, which was nearly ready for flight when it was destroyed in its hangar by a severe storm in early 1909.

[2] On 17 December 1907, local businessman Pierre Arbel, director of the Forges de Douai, donated land as France's first airfield, and created a 72 hectares (180 acres) field and a fenced area for the hangars and workshops.

[4] Jacques Breguet founded the Aero Club of Douai at La Brayelle around this time, which also engaged in training pilots.

Captain Marcel Dubois and Lieutenant Albert Peignan, both of the French Army, crashed into one another in an early-morning haze, killing both pilots.

[6] In 1914, at the start of the war, the French military arrived, and the Royal Naval Air Service stationed some armoured cars here.

In June 1916 Bavarian aerial reconnaissance unit Feldflieger Abteilung (Field Aviation Battalion) 5b arrived at La Brayelle, but left in October[8] after hangars were destroyed during heavy bombardment.

The Germans continued to occupy the airfield, and on 2 May 1918 Roderic Dallas, commander of RAF 40 Squadron, in an S.E.5, created an unusual incident when he dropped a package with a note taunting the Germans, then bombed and shot up the base, apparently to the amusement of Field Marshal Haig and Sir Hugh Trenchard.