Early aviator, inventor and successful businessman
Charles Terres Weymann (2 August 1889 – 1976) was a Haitian-born early aeroplane racing pilot and businessman. During World War I he flew for Nieuport as a test pilot and was awarded the rank of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Early years
Weymann was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 2 August 1889 to an American father and Haitian mother.{{efn|It is said[by whom?] that Weymann's mother was Cornelie Miot, herself Haitian and daughter of Charles Miot and Lesinska Cecile Rivière, both Haitians. Lesinska Cecile Rivière (1829–1908), Charles's maternal grandmother, was the sister of Bienaimé "Mémé" Rivière, the richest person in Haiti at the time, who owned shipping lines among other things.
Inventor
Fabric bodies
After the war Charles Weymann used his knowledge of airframe manufacture to develop a system of making fabric bodies for road vehicles. He opened factories in Paris in 1921, London in 1923 and Indianapolis in 1928. The market for these grew enormously and Weymann licensed his system to many of Europe's most prestigious marques.
A change of fashion in the late 1920s led to a demand for gloss painted bodies and the fabric market disappeared. A system was developed using metal panels with a similar flexible mounting allowing movement between panels. It was used on coachbuilt bodies but it did not suit the demands of mass-production.
The French factory closed in 1930 followed by Indianapolis in 1931. The British plant had turned to the manufacture of bus bodies and survived (as Metro Cammell Weymann) but Weymann resigned from the company in 1932.
Automatic clutch
He maintained his interest in developing equipment for the automotive industry. In 1963 he obtained a patent for an automatic clutch but it did not meet with commercial success.
Weymann returned to aviation with the engineer Georges Lepère and continued to design aircraft, such as the Weymann 66 and autogyros at Société des Avions C T Weymann.
In August 1910, he participated in the French Circuit de l'Est air competition.
In September 1910, he attempted to win the Michelin prize by flying from Paris to Puy de Dôme (about 250 miles) with a passenger in six hours.[1] After seven hours he set down about 10 km short of his destination, bad weather preventing further progress.
In June 1911, he took part in the Paris-Rome air race.
In July 1911, he took part in the Circuit d'Europé, but retired to compete in the Gordon Bennett Trophy race.
