User:Zemedia/draft article on Pierre Clerget

Pierre Clêrget, (1875 - 1943) was a French engineer, inventor and founder of the Clerget-Blin company. He is best known as an aviation pioneer and designer of a series of early rotary aircraft engine types of the World War I and one of the first diesel engines for aircraft.

Early life
Clêrget was born in Dijon, Burgundy, France the son of a manufacturer of stills. At the age of 14 he attended the Universal Exhibition of Paris, 1889 where his interest in engineering was stimulated by the exhibition of internal combustion engines manufactured by Gottlieb Daimler and Armand Peugeot. He began his career at the Laurent Brothers and Collot mechanical workshop in Dijon, and through taking evening classes he passed the State Board examination in mechanical engineering in 1895.

Early career
In 1905 Clêrget joined the Clément-Bayard company where he designed engines for airships. In 1910 he developed a 40 hp, 4-cylinder inline, water-cooled engine. Weighing less than 200 kg, it was used to power Oscar Gnosspelius' 'Gnosspelius hydro-monoplane No.2' on its maiden flight at Lake Windermere on 13 February 1912.