6th November 2007
Aero-Club of France welcome by Centennial Committee
Welcome to Mr. Jean-Francois GEORGES and Mr. Pierre-Alain ANTOINE
This is on 6th November 2007 that Mr. Jean-François GEORGES, President of Aero-Club of France, and Mr. Colonel Pierre-Alain ANTOINE, former Commander of "Patrouille de France" ('Patrol of France To Gun French Air force Team') and President of the Aero-Club of France Commission in charge of national air shows, did visit...in aircraft Le Mans and Sarthe.
Welcome at Le Mans airport (where they watched historical panels on air terminal building walls) by Centennial Committee delegates, including Claude MOTTIER, Michel CHANTELOUP and Marc DENOUEIX, a program of visits made them able to see the quality and density of the work performed in the view of Le Mans Sarthe Wright 2008 Centennial.
The program began with a visit of Sarthe Department Archives, probably one of the most modern of France to date, where Mr. Benoît PEDRETTI, Managing Director, described the technical capabilities of his public archives (protection of historical documents, storage capabilities) and also the work done related to the listing, the classification and the undergrouping of historical ressources around early aviation and the WRIGHT brothers story in Sarthe.
A stop at the University of Maine campus of Le Mans (Sarthe, France) and at Coclico Company, allowed us to surf on the Centennial Committee web site - www.wright2008.com - and to check some historical aspects shown on this performing web site. Christian MORIN and Amaël BOUGARD (Coclico Company) then present a sample of the "light show" project presently under development (an idea of great interest the Centennial Committee would like to promote in very next future).
Off course it was not possible to host a delegation from Aero-Club of France without showing her the Aero-Club of France monument dedicated to Wilbur WRIGHT and re-installed recently nearby its original location - Auvours military camp, city of Champagné, Sarthe, France - after a stay of about 30 years at Social Security building in Le Mans city center, former historical location of Leon BOLLEE automobile factory where Wilbur WRIGHT re-assemblied his WRIGHT FLYER III prior his aeronautical experimentations in Le Mans and Sarthe in 1908-1909.
After a very quick stop at the monument of Jacobins square of Le Mans (the 1st monument dedicated to the WRIGHT brothers and to the precursors of aviation in history, creation of Paul LANDOWSKI), a 'working-lunch' in company of the Centennial Committee Co-Chair - Joel GROUAS - made exchanges easy in the view of all aeronautical and aviation events scheduled for 2008 in Sarthe.
On beginning afternoon, it was the turn of Le Mans Sarthe Aéro Retro teamwork - inclusing Maurice BALLIER, Guy CLEMENT, Martine LESELLIER and Alain VAN DROGENBROECK - to welcome at airport hangar this delegation in order to show her the WRIGHT FLYER III 1908 flying replica. As experts the 2 pilots members of Aéro-Club of France expressed their admiration about the work performed and the 63 times renewed flying achievements with such airplane. A meeting with the official WRIGHT FLYER pilot of Le Mans, Jef JACQUELIN, did confirm this opinion.
Mr. Jean-François GEORGES is a former Managing Director of Dassault Aviation. He is Honorary Member of the Le Mans Sarthe Wright 2008 Centennial since late 2005.
Mr. Colonel Pierre-Alain ANTOINE after a brilliant French Air Force carreer, is today an active writer ("Du haut de mes ailes : Mémoires d'un pilote de chasse" / 'From my wings altitude : Memories of a top gun' - 2006, with Richard WOLSZTYNSKI). He agreed to become Centennial Comittee Board of Trustees member. Both Presidents of the Centennial Committee proposed him to become as well Honorary member of the Le Mans Sarthe Wright 2008 Centennial, which was accepted with pleasure by him.
People from Sarthe knew they could count on Aero-Club of France !
