Didier Daurat

Didier Daurat

Didier Daurat (2 January 1891, Montreuil-sous-Bois – 2 December 1969, Toulouse) was a pioneer of French aviation.

Biography

Daurat was a fighter pilot during World War I, distinguishing himself by spotting the Paris Gun which was pounding Paris.

After the war, he joined Latécoère's airline company, (which later became the Compagnie générale aéropostale - Aéropostale, then Air France) where he was a pilot and later operations director.

From this time, the legend of the man with the iron will made Didier Daurat a boss admired by many, feared by all and hated by some. He did not hesitate to dismiss those who showed the slightest sign of weakness, questioned his methods or did not adhere to the 'spirit of the mail' (l'esprit du courrier).

Many of his pilots began their careers as grease monkeys, taking apart, cleaning and reassembling engines. According to Daurat, this formed character and taught pilots to respect their machines. But he knew when he saw a talented pilot. When Jean Mermoz presented himself in Toulouse and made a dazzling display of piloting skill, Daurat told him "I don't need circus artists but bus drivers." ("Je n'ai pas besoin d'artistes de cirque mais de conducteurs d'autobus"). Nevertheless, he engaged him to clean the engines.

These methods proved their worth because the Latécoère lines, and later Aéropostale, achieved a level of punctuality and reliability unknown for the time on the Toulouse-Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal route, and later from Toulouse-Santiago, Chile, Chile with a crossing of the south Atlantic and the Andes.

When Aéropostale was integrated with Air France in 1933, Daurat, friendless, was dismissed.

In 1935, he founded the Air Bleu company, which transported mail throughout France, by day as well as by night. Results were remarkable, but the company was militarised with the declaration of war in 1939.

Following the Liberation of France, he relaunched the night postal service before becoming operations chief for Air France at Orly, a post he held until his retirement in 1953.

He died in Toulouse in 1969. At his request, he was granted the honour of being buried on the Toulouse-Montaudran Airport, former base of Aéropostale.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry took inspiration from Didier Daurat for the character of Rivière in Night Flight (Vol de nuit, 1931).

Publications

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