User:Dri1com/Jean Dabry

Jean Dabry, born the 8th December 1901 in Avignon (France) and deceased the 5th July 1990 in Montmorency was a French aviator of the Aéropostale, then an airline pilot for Air France. He is buried in the Montmorency cemetery.

Biography
Firstly Officer-going he joins the Aéropostale in 1928 as navigator. Two years later, the 12th April 1930 with Jean Mermoz as pilot and Léopold Gimié as radio-operator they make a closed circuit length record by floatplane. The aircraft, a Latécoère 28 fitted with an 600hp Hispano-Suiza engine fly 4 345 km for 30h25.

On 12 and 13 May 1930, the same crew perform the first crossing of the South Atlantic Ocean with the floatplane Laté 28 "Compte de la Vault" fitted with an Hispano-Suiza engine (600hp). They fly between Saint Louis, Sénégal to Natal (Brazil). They delivered 130kg of mail during this 3200 km journey .During the flight, two record will be established namely, distance in straight line for a seaplane and mail delivery time as they flew for 20 hours and 15 minutes.

He becomes a captain at Air France in 1936. During his career he made more than 540 crossing of the North Atlantic ocean. He became one of the executive director of the company. He logged 16 000 hours of flight time when he leaves Air France in 1957

Publications

 * French book : Amicale des pionniers des lignes aériennes Latécoère-aéropostale, L'Aéropostale : l'histoire, les hommes : à Toulouse, terre d'envol, Castres, J. Gasc, 1983 (rédigé par Jean Dabry et Gaston Vedel)

Awards

 * Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur
 * Grand-croix de l'ordre national du Mérite
 * Médaille de l'Aéronautique

Related Article

 * Aéropostale