On 7 December 1936, on a planned flight from Dakar to Natal, Brazil, he turned back shortly after take-off to report a troublesome engine on his Latécoère 300 Croix-du-Sud ( Southern Cross). In 1935, he also flew de Havilland DH.88 "Comet" airplanes. From 1934 to 1936, Mermoz would fly private expeditions on Latécoère 300 airplanes. They became regarded as two of the most important men in the history of Argentine commercial aviation. Mermoz and Saint-Exupéry flew many dangerous flights for the then new air company. That same year, he arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he and Saint-Exupéry became important persons during the infancy of Aeroposta Argentina, which would later become Aerolíneas Argentinas. In 1933, Mermoz was appointed general inspector by Air France. Mermoz, his two companions and the mail were rescued, but the plane sank during the attempt to tow it. Unfortunately, the modified Laté 28 "Comte-de-la-Vaulx" did not prove reliable enough, and had to ditch at sea during the return flight. Mermoz, between Victor Etienne and Guillaumet Río de Janeiro.Īfter flying from Saint-Louis, in Senegal, to Natal, Brazil, in 12–, the line was complete at last. During that time, to save time, he decided to fly during the night, using light beacons and flares as guides and his fellow pilots, for once, were a bit reluctant to see him do it, because they knew it would be their turn next.įor some time, as transatlantic flights were not yet possible, steamboats linked both halves of the "Line". Despite Mermoz finding the flying conditions over the Andes to be tough, he became the project's main pilot, determined to reach the Pacific Ocean, and he was able, after multiple stops, to reach Santiago, Chile. By 1929, it had become evident that it would be economically viable for France to establish a commercial air route to South America, so Mermoz and others flew over the Andes. Latécoère's project was to create a direct airline between France and South America. The Latécoère 25, (or "Laté 25") and, later, the Latécoère 26 and Latécoère 28 proved to be efficient aircraft when flying from Morocco to Senegal, and Mermoz himself flew the types on those routes on multiple occasions.īut Africa was only the beginning. In 1927, Latécoère began building his own brand of planes to replace the aging World War I aircraft Breguet 14. © Copyright Wikipédia authors - This article is under licence CC BY-SA 3.A Latécoère 25 in the Museo Nacional de Aeronáutica de Argentina, in the livery of Aeroposta Argentina Taken hostage by a group of rebel Tuaregs, he was later found alive.
In 1926, one of Mermoz's flights ended with an accident, when his plane crashed in the Sahara. At the Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, Mermoz travelled to Morocco, Senegal and other African areas. It was there that Mermoz met Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
(The director, Didier Daurat had this famous quote: "We don't need acrobats here, we need bus drivers.") He then did a normal, flawless flight and was hired. Later on, Mermoz went on to become an airmail pilot, with Latécoère's company, and almost failed his entry exam by performing dangerous stunts to impress the director. In 1924, he returned to France, having arguably been one of the most successful pilots in the Syrian operations. Mermoz, whose infancy had been marked by World War I news, joined the French Air Force in 1922, being assigned, as a pilot of the air force's 11th regiment, to duty in Syria. He also liked literature, but he shunned potential careers in any art fields to concentrate on becoming a pilot. He has been described as shy and as a quiet adolescent. He also admired sculpture and other forms of art. In April 1921, he flew as a pilot for the first time. In 1920, he met Max Delby, a teacher who helped Mermoz increase his interest in aviation.
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