Louis Charles Bréguet

Louis Charles Bréguet (1880-1955), French airplane designer, born in Paris, France. Bréguet is best known for the development of a reconnaissance, or observation, airplane used in World War I (1914-1918). In 1905, in collaboration with his brother Jacques Bréguet and Charles Richet, Bréguet began work on a gyroplane (forerunner of the modern-day helicopter) with flexible wings, which was able to ascend with a pilot in 1907. Bréguet turned to the development of airplanes shortly after this, and he pioneered, with others, in the construction of metal aircraft.

Bréguet’s day bomber and reconnaissance airplane, called Bréguet’s-14 day bomber, was made almost entirely of aluminum. This bomber was a mainstay of the French army in World War I and through the 1920s, and it was used by 16 squadrons of the American Expeditionary Force. Bréguet built several military and commercial airplanes and seaplanes but returned to his work on the gyroplane in 1935, working on a design that flew by a combination of blade flapping and feathering. He continued this work during World War II (1939-1945), and after the war he went ahead with the development of commercial transports.