Ernest Failloubaz

Ernest Failloubaz ( born July 21, 1892 in Avenches, † May 14, 1919 in Lausanne) was a Swiss aviation pioneer.

Life

Failloubaz was the son of a wealthy wine merchant and mayor of Vallamand. After the early death of his father, he moved with his mother and a half- sister to Avenches, where his mother along with her mother led the parental bakery. In 1902, he was an orphan, and inherited a large fortune.

Failloubaz invested his entire fortune in the construction of a flight school and aircraft factory in Avenches. In 1919, he died penniless in the Canton Hospital of Lausanne of tuberculosis.

Role in the Swiss aviation

On May 10, 1910 Failloubaz flew the first machine with a Swiss design, which had been constructed by René Grandjean. Due to his young age, was called Failloubaz " le gamin volant ( The Flying child). On May 15, Grandjean undertook himself a flight test during which the machinery was destroyed. September 28, 1910 took Failloubaz a flight from Avenches to Payerne with a Blériot. this 6 -minute flight Failloubaz scored the first intra- Swiss flight from city to city. Already on October 2, followed by a day of flying on the newly established airfield in Avenches and an air show from October 8 to 10 in Bern, where Failloubaz the first Swiss pilot license was awarded.

In September 1911, the Swiss army led by the first reconnaissance flights. The fifth had to use an emergency landing the rented Dufaux aircraft Failloubaz and observers Gustave Lecoultre. The attempt to show the merits of the air reconnaissance was for the time being failed.

For health reasons Failloubaz was not recruited and used in World War I as a military pilot.

Honors

Since 1942, there is a built by the Societé de Développement d' Avenches monument in the courtyard of the castle of Avenches. 1960 established the town of Avenches on the Payerne military airfield, a memorial to the first flight from city to city on March 4, 2010, the Swiss Post occasion of the 100th anniversary of Swiss aviation special stamp Ernest Failloubaz worth 85 centimes out. .