Circuit de l'Est

The Circuit de l'Est was a six-stage air race organized by the newspaper Le Matin, ^[1] which took place in August 1910. General Foch, who had followed the race attentively, declared a few weeks later during the first aerial maneuvers in Picardy, to the Matin delegate, Robert de Beauplan: "All that, you see, is sport: but for the army, the air force, it's zero".^[2]

Competition

• 
  Departure of Alfred Leblanc on a Blériot XI from Issy-les-Moulineaux aerodrome at Paris.
• 
  Departure of Émile Aubrun on a Blériot XI.
• 
  Charles Terres Weymann at Charleville.
• 
  Troyes.
• 
  Alfred Leblanc arrives first on his Blériot.
• 
  Alfred LeBlanc congratulated by Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe, at Nancy.

The race took place over six stages linking the cities of Paris – Troyes - Nancy - Mézières – Douai Amiens – Paris. The French army aviation service committed three crews to this event.

Alfred Leblanc won the race, and won the prize of 100,000 francs reserved for the winner (i.e. approximately €366,000 in 2017), Émile Aubrun finished second, each piloting a Blériot XI monoplane powered by a Gnome engine of 50hp. They were the only survivors of the 35 entered, of which only ten started from Issy-lès-Moulineaux. They traveled 805 km in 12 h 1 min 1 s, an average speed of 66.99km/h.^[3]

References

1. ""Le Matin organizes the first air race"". Le Matin: 1. 1910.
2. Bloch, Marc (2010). L'Étrange défaite (in French). Paris: Gallimard. p. 326. ISBN 978-2-07-032569-6.
3. ""The triumphs of aviation, the circuit of the east by airplane"". L'Aérophile (in French): 386. 1910.

External links

• "Les débuts de l'aviation militaire française". 1910. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
• "Les hommes-oiseaux et le circuit de l'Est – L. Bertrand – Nancy −1910". Retrieved 28 October 2017.
• "Le circuit de l'Est – Aviation – 7 au 17 août 1910 – Alain Lefèvre". 7 January 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2017.