Louis Charles Breguet

In 1905, with his brother Jacques, and under the guidance of Charles Richet, he began work on a gyroplane (the forerunner of the helicopter) with flexible wings.

On 29 September 1907, at his workshop at La Brayelle, it achieved the first ascent of a vertical-flight aircraft with a pilot, albeit only to a height of 0.6 metres (2.0 ft).

He built his first fixed-wing aircraft, the Breguet Type I, in 1909, flying it successfully before crashing it at the Grande Semaine d'Aviation held at Reims.

Created with co-designer René Dorand, the craft, called the Gyroplane Laboratoire, flew by a combination of blade flapping and feathering.

Breguet remained an important manufacturer of aircraft during World War II and afterwards developed commercial transports.

[1] Breguet, as helmsman of his 8-metre (26 ft) yacht Namousa, won a bronze medal in sailing during the 1924 Summer Olympics.