HENRI ROUGIER 1876-1956

Rougier at Antwerp, 1910 Collection of Jean-Pierre Lauwer

 

64 - SPORTS - Aviation - L'appareil de Rougier Collection of Moviebilia Vintage pre-1945 movie memorabilia on display and for sale. Courtesy of Bob Henderson, 7-26-06

 

1910 Early Aviation HENRI ROUGIER Aviator biplane photo      Circa 1910 Vintage (not a reproduction) French glossy collotype photo postcard featuring early aviator Henri Rougier and his biplane midst flight. Postally used in1910. Courtesy of Bob Henderson, 8-4-04 Editor's Note: This photograph is currently, 8-5-04, being offered for purchase on eBay by Bob Henderson. You can view the offering at: Henri Rougier      Bob has very kindly allowed me to display the photo on this page, for which I am very grateful. If by the time you follow the link, and find that the photo has already been sold, you are invited to view thumbnails of some of his many other current offerings at: poppy1auctions Showcase

 

HENRI ROUGIER, 1910 Courtesy of Bob Henderson, 8-4-04

 

Rougier's Voisin with a Gnôme Oméga engine Courtesy of Bob Henderson, 8-4-04

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES By email from Dave Lam, 1-25-03      Henri Rougier was probably born on October 28, 1876 in Marseille. He earned his French license # 11 on November 18, 1909 in a Voisin.

 

Flight Fest for Berlin, Week of International Flying Will Begin Sunday. Prizes Range from $1,250 to $2,500. Daily Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Tennessee: September 25, 1909, Transcribed by Bob Davis - 9-16-03 Berlin, Sept. 24.      The international flying contests which begin next Sunday at Johannisthal, near Kopenick outside of Berlin, promise to be successful. The competitons are to be held under the direction of the German Aeronautic association, the imperial aero club and the Imperial Automobile club. The aerodrome is a vast semi-circle of eight hundred acres, bounded by forests. The flying course is five hundred feet wide, 1.55 miles long and outlined by tall masts.      The contests will continue for one week. The principal events are to be distance and endurance races, a competition to reach the highest altitude, and speed and weight-carrying races. The prizes range from $1,250 to $2,500. The donor of the Michelin cup has consented that this year's contest for the trophy be held here. The cup is worth $2,000 and with it goes a purse of $4,000 to aeroplanist covering the greatest distance.      Among the aeroplanists who are to take part are Bleriot, Latham, Farman,Rougier, Fournier, Decater and Resa. Orville Wright has not announced his decision to participate." Bob Davis

 

French Odier-Vendome On the back of the postcard there is written: "74406 Fototipia Alterocca - Terni." Terni is a town in Italy. Collection of Giovanni Giorgetti, 3-5-06      Built for Henri Rougier, the famous French Pilot, by the Vendome company in 1910. I don't know what the title on your photo means, but I wonder if it is a pilot's name, rather than an aircraft make. Attached is another photo of the same aircraft, this time flying at Issy-les-Moulineux -- it says 1909, but my other sources say this plane first flew in 1910, so I don't know. Dave Identification by Dave Lam, 3-11-06

 

31 -- LOCOMOTION AERIENNE. ODIER VENDOME sur biplan avec un passenger, Issy-les-Moulineux, 7 Septembre 1909 Collection of Dave Lam, 3-11-06

 

Defense of French Airmen Who it is Said Have not Done Conspicuous Service. The Reverse is True for the Most Valuable Aid Has Been Rendered. The Real Mission of the Aeroplane, However, is That of Auxiliary to the Artillery. Knoxville Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Tennessee: November 10, 1914. Transcribed by Bob Davis - 3-18-07 Paris, Nov. 9. - Published reports that French aeroplanes are never seen above the French lines, while many hostile machines reconnoiter over the heads of the French soldiers has brought forth a defense of the French aviation service. To read the rest of this article, click on the title above.

 

Post Card - 1910 A card from Monaco dated 11/3/1910 sent to the U.K. referring to the aviator Collection of Godfrey Bowden, 5-15-07 Member of the France and Colonies Philatelic Society)

 

ONLINE RESOURCES Using the Google search engine on "Henri Rougier" +aviation", (4-6-07), you will find about 120 links. Many of them are very helpful. The one immediately below has disappeared from the net, but luckily I had preserved a relevant portion of it. The original document is written entirely in French. If you can read the language, you will find it to be a treasure house of information. Even if you can't, and I can't, you will be able to understand the relevant selection.

La société des moteurs Gnôme 23 avril 1910: Nice.      "Disputé sur le champ de course de la Californie par treize concurrents, presque tous nouveaux dans les meeting aériens, trois sur monoplans et dix sur biplans, le meeting de Nice est une sportive populaire. Les résidants de la côte d'azur tel le roide Suède Gustave V en villégiature assistant à un spectacle qui les ravit. Le pilote Michel Effimoff sur Farman à moteur Gnôme Oméga vole sur 458 kilomètres et Van den Born, sur le même type de matériel, parcourt 266 kilomètres, dont 87 d'une traite. Henri Rougier pilote un Voisin à moteur Gnôme Oméga."        I used the BabelFish translation program to change it into English, more or less. The result is as follows. 23 April 1910:Nice      "Competing on the California racecourse were thirteen aviators, almost all of them new to air meetings, three on monoplanes and ten on biplanes. The meeting at Nice is a popular sporting vraie réussite. Residents of the côte d'azure, including King Gustave V of Sweden who was on holiday, attended the spectacle which ravit them. Effimoff, the pilot of a Farman with a Gnôme Oméga engine, flew 458 kilometers and Van den Born, in the same kind of plane, traveled 266 kilometers, including 87 of a draft. Henri Rougier piloted a Voisin with a Gnôme Oméga engine ."

 

Rheims The First International Aviation Meeting      This webpage is just one of many on the "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" website. As stated in the introduction to the site,      "This site is dedicated to the history of aviation in Europe from the earliest powered flights to the outbreak of the First World War. It is not in any real sense a history of the invention or development of the Aeroplane, but more a celebration of the brave and colourful pre-war pioneers, who to an adoring public really were 'Magnificent Men'. Here you will find details of some of their record breaking flights, competitions, races and of course the amazing aeroplanes they flew. There are other excellent web sites dealing with the Wright brothers and their rivals and so this site just concentrates on the European scene."      To visit the page on which Rougier is mentioned, click on the title above. While on the site, you are well advised to take advantage of the many other sections of this really outstanding resource..

Flying Machines, 1909 Special Collections Wright State University Libraries      This interesting website includes 25 brief biographies of aviators of the period, including Henri Rougier, and their associated postcards. Full size images of the postcards were available in January,, 2003, but seem to have disappeared. (8-31-03). To access the website, just click on the title above.

 

HISTORY OF THE GHEDI AERODROME      Although there is only a brief reference to the activities of Rougier, this article is important to anyone wanting to understand the development of aviation in Italy. The following paragraph was extracted from the article so as to highlight the many pioneer aviators who played a part in its history. It is amply illustrated with seven photographs. I think you will want to read the whole article which details the history from 1909 to 2002.      "The beginning of the flying activity in Ghedi was in 1909 when in the moor on the border with Montichiari was organized an airshow of international importance which saw the participation of airmen such as Wright, Calderara, Cobianchi, Cagno, Rougier, Curtiss, Moucher, Lebland, Anzani and Blériot, who won the "Brescia Grand Prize" flying 50 Km. in 49.24" with a biplane aircraft, while Curtiss won the height race reaching 92 metres. Among the spectators were numbered the Princess Letizia Savoy Bonaparte, Franz Kafka, who acted as foreign correspondent for a newspaper, and Gabriele d'Annunzio, who flew as passenger on Wright's airplane and that would later make of aviation one of his greatest passions (very famous remained his "Flight over Vienna")."      To access the site, just click on the title above.

 

OTHER HISTORIC AIRPORTS via email from Don Fiore - 9-1-03      In addition to Ghedi, other very early but important Italian airfields included Centocelle (Rome) where Wilbur Wright gave his first Italian demonstration), Gioa De Colle, & Aviano (still used today by the United States).

 

Henri Rougier died in Marseille in 1956 Personal communication from Peter Higham, 6-14-05

 

Editor's Note: If you have any information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

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