CHARLES LAMBERT 1865-1944 AKA Count de Lambert & Comte de LAMBERT

COUNT DE LAMBERT & PRINCE ALEXANDER Library of Congress Collection, 9-12-07

CHARLES LAMBERT Collection of Dave Lam, 2-20-05

Count de Lambert, 1909 Collection of Jean-Pierre Lauwers

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES from Jean-Pierre Lauwers      Count de Lambert was born in Madeira on December 30, 1865. He died in Paris February 26, 1944. He has been identified as both French and Russian! Even more confusing, in Holland, they recognize him as a Belgian! However, he should be placed with the French aviators! According to an article I have here, he was the inventor of the hydro-glider. It was a flat bottomed boat with a motor and moved by a propeller! His factory was at the Seine River boards of Paris! The first hydroglider was produced by the firm he founded in 1920 at Nanterre. We should not forget that he was already constructing and developing his "hydroglisseurs" before WWI !      He was the first student taught by Wilbur Wright in France. He gained FAI license n° 8 on October 7, ]1909. On October 18, 1909, he was the first to fly over Paris and around the Eiffel Tower. In addition, he set an altitude record that same day.       The postcard above shows him in flight at the Semaine d'Aviation de Reims (Champagne). He was the first aviator to fly in Holland (The Netherlands) on June27, 1909, although the flight only lasted 3.5 minutes!

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Via email from Gerard J. van Heusden, 3-4-04      On www.earlyaviators.com/edohuuvi.htm I have read with much interest on Do Huu Vi, first Vietnamese pilot, who, in 1914, returned to Saigon to study the use of the Lambert hydroplanes on the Mekong and Red Rivers.      Please be informed that said Charles count de LAMBERT, (B 30/12/1865 Funchal, Madeira; D 26/2/1944 08.30 Saint-Sylvain d'Anjou, France), is the French/Russian aviator who flew with a Wright Flyer for the first time above Netherlandish territory on Sunday 27 1909. This nationally historical flight, the centenary of which will be organised in 2009, took place very close to my domicile, and as a historian, I am preparing the publication of a biography.      I hope you can help me with my historical research by sending me further particulars on the study of Do Huu Vi to use the hydroplane. Any information as well as any advice is most welcome! Thanking you in advance for your reaction and with kind greetings, Gerard J. van Heusden Tournooiveld 11 4841 VM PRINSENBEEK The Netherlands Editor's Note: Anyone who can help Mr. van Heusden with his project is invited to contact him through me. I will be happy to forward your response to him.

 

Lambert Hydroglisseur Collection of Jean-Pierre Lauwers, 9-17-07

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      Our good friend Jean-Pierre Lauwers tells us that if you search for "de lambert" +hydroglisseur, using the Google search engine, (9-19-07), you will find about 51 links. Most of them are in French, but some have English translations. Some have ilulstrations of the hydroglisseur.

 

45 - LOCOMOTION AÉRIENNE - Comte de LAMBERT (15 Février 1909) Collection of Dave Lam, 8-3-07

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      Using the Google search engine on "Count de Lambert", you will find about 22 links. AERO-CLUB OF BEARN: CRADLE OF AVIATION English Translation      "The Aéro-Club of Bearn has a prestigious past. It is the "leader" in the French history and the world history of Aviation and "PAU'S BETH CEU" (Pau's beautiful sky), sung by the poet Darrichon, is not foreign to it."      On this site you will find the story of the Wright Brothers and their contract to train three pilots. Their names were Count de Lambert, Paul Tissandier and Captain Lucas-Gérardville. To read the whole story of the founding of the first aviation school in France, and the role of Pau in the development of aviation in France, click on the title.   The History of Cannes Aviation and aeronautics Cannes-Mandelieu airport      This website has only a very brief mention of Count de Lambert, but it does have entries for some six other pioneer aviators, which makes it worth a visit. To access it, click on the title.        I recommend that you visit some of the other sites so as to learn as much as is available on the life and career of the Count de Lambert.

 

Charles Lambert died in Paris on February 26, 1944. Email from Jean-Pierre Lauwers   Editor's Note: If you have any information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

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