Another aviation legend! A look back at the career of a French aviation pioneer who has been somewhat forgotten by history...
Another aviation legend! A look back at the career of a French aviation pioneer who has been somewhat forgotten by history…
Alongside names such as Blériot, Lindbergh, Earhart, Saint-Exupéry, and many others, some names in aviation are less well known, a century after the first records and other crossings (New York–Paris for Lindbergh in 1927, for example) that marked the epic history of aeronautics. This is somewhat the case with Joseph Le Brix, famous in his day but whose memory has gradually faded from the collective consciousness over the years. Justice is partially done with this book, which recounts the many exploits of this Breton from the seaside whose fame stems from his achievements in the air.
Born in 1899, Joseph Le Brix joined the Naval Academy at a very early age, in 1918, at the age of 19, before entering the Air Force Officers’ School a few years later. It was the mid-1920s and his career took off. Promoted to lieutenant, he flew a Farman F.60 during the Rif War (Morocco) and was awarded the Legion of Honor for his conduct in combat. Then, in 1927, he crossed the South Atlantic between Senegal and Brazil, accompanied by Dieudonné Costes, with whom he also made a round-the-world trip with stopovers. He was now famous!
What happened next? He passed on his passion to future Air Force officers, set a closed-circuit distance record (over 10,000 km), and made several attempts to fly from Paris to Tokyo in one go. The last attempt proved fatal for the man to whom a museum is now dedicated in his hometown of Baden, in the Gulf of Morbihan.
Book. “Joseph Le Brix, the Breton aviator who conquered the world” Author, Françoise Ferreira. Published by Éditions Ouest-France. EAN: 9782737392382