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Henri Marie Léonce Fabre is a French engineer and aviator that was born in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône, France) on 29 November 1882 and died on 28 June 1984 in Touvet (Isère, France), at the age of 101. He was the inventor in 1910 of the seaplane (first called hydro-airplane, until 1913).
Henri Fabre was born into a prominent family of shipowners in the city of Marseille. He conducted brilliant studies at the Faculty of Sciences of Marseille and completed engineering studies at the Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité in Paris. For four years, Henri Fabre devoted himself to designing, testing and realizing a hydro-airplane equipped with three floats. For the realization of his project, Fabre received help from Marius Burdin, a former mechanic of Captain Ferdinand Ferber, and Léon Sebille, a naval architect and draftsman of Marseille. The "duck" type aircraft, whose name it was, had a wingspan of 14 m, a length of 8.5 m and a weight of 380 kg. It was equipped with a 50 hp Gnome Omega engine driving a 2.6 m (8.5 ft) diameter propeller.
On March 28, 1910, near Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône, France), on the banks of the Berre pond, opposite the village of La Mède, Henri Fabre took off his float plane four times before a large public in which was the aviator Louis Paulhan. During its longest flight, the aircraft traveled 700 meters above the pond and landed on the water. It was the first seaplane in the world to take off autonomously, successfully flying and landing. On that day, Henri Fabre, then 27 years old, became the incontestable inventor, builder and first pilot of this new flying craft, the seaplane.
Fabre was quickly contacted by Glenn Curtiss and Gabriel Voisin who wanted to develop their own machines. On January 26, 1911, in San Diego, Glenn Curtiss took off from the surface of the ocean to land next to the battleship Pennsylvania. Hoisted on board and then released, he reached the coast by the air. He then drew up an official act stipulating that he was the "first to have flown aboard a seaplane" ...
Also in 1911, the "Canard" seaplane, this time piloted by Jean Becue, flew at the prestigious Competition of Canoes Automobiles of Monaco. After the first flight, Henri Fabre undertook the commercialization of his aircraft of which he built several copies.
In 1913, Fabre teamed up with the engineer Tellier to develop the first seaplanes, but after political disagreements, they ceased their collaboration only a few days before the beginning of the First World War.
During this war, Fabre worked for the French Navy. He helped Glenn Curtiss in the development of the first American seaplanes.
After the First World War
Henri Fabre continued his test flights until 1923, when, following a slight accident, he ceased his aeronautical construction activities. His work remains that of an engineer, head of a company building machines for the industry in various sectors, and in 1945, when De Gaulle offered him the direction of the SNCASO seaplane plant, Fabre refused.
After the Second World War, he continued to work on other inventions, such as his " bateau-clac", a foldable boat on which he was sailing and which he could carry in his 2 CV car.
One can still see today two exemplars of the historical seaplane "Canard":
Two monuments commemorate the event of March 28, 1910:
For the 100th anniversary of the first seaplane flight, French Post issued a stamp on 29-03-2010.
In 1927, he was appointed member of the Académie of Marseille.
Creation in 2012 of the Technocentre "Henri Fabre" integrated into a techno-park dedicated to aeronautics, mechanics, innovative materials, etc. in Marignane (Bouches-du-Rhône, France).
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