Ernest Archdeacon (1863 - 1950)
Rich lawyer and sportsman, the French Archdeacon created the Aéro-Club de France in response to Chanute's "dinner-conférence" in March, 1903. Archdeacon built a copy of the Wright No. 3 glider, but had only limited success. Archdeacon was soon joined by Gabriel Voisin, who developed and sold many early aircraft. Mécène français de l'aéronautique (Paris, 1863 - Versailles, 1950). Passionné par les sciences mécaniques, il s'intéressa à l'aviation naissante et contribua à la fondation de l'Aéro-Club de France (1898).
Gallery
 Archdeacon-Voisin Glider, c.1904 download a 750pixel image
 Archdeacon-Voisin Glider, c.1904 download a 750pixel image
 Archdeacon-Voisin Glider, Berck Beach, 1904
 Archdeacon-Voisin Glider, Berck Beach, 1904
 Archdeacon-Voisin Glider, Issy les Moulineaux, March, 1905 download a 1000pixel image
 Archdeacon-Voisin Glider, Issy les Moulineaux, March, 1905 download a 1000pixel image download a 1000pixel original image incl. date ref.
 Archdeacon-Voisin Glider, Issy les Moulineaux, March, 1905 Towed by car with sand bag load Download a 750pixel image
On 29 May Farman took the first passenger in Europe into the air. Appropriately enough it was Ernest Archdeacon, the man who had done so much to encourage aviation in France since 1903.
 Henry Farman and Ernest Archdeacon (r), Issy-les-Moulineaux, 1908
 Henry Farman and Ernest Archdeacon (r), Issy-les-Moulineaux, 1908 download a 750pixel image
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The Aero-Club De France was created on 20 October 1898 by a handful of wealthy gentlemen, including the Comte de la Vaulx, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe and Albert de Dion, all avid balloonists. Soon after, a handsome, young and extremely rich Brazillian, Alberto Santos-Dumont, joined them. At the time, few people a believed that it would ever be possible to fly heavier-than-air machines, but the eccentric and courageous Santos-Dumont was one of them
"encouragement to aerial locomotion in all its forms and in all its applications" When the Aéro Club de France was formed in 1898, no winged airplanes had flown; only balloons. The founders of the Aéro Club were pure dreamers, because it was also the world's first aero club. Imagine, if you will, reading a newspaper in Pago-Pago in 1898, about the formation of France's Aéro Club. It must have seemed like a tremendous joke. But to Parisians at the time, it probably seemed sensible; because every city, town and village had its tinkerer who was building something mysterious with wood and bicycle wheels and wire and paper or fabric. When man finally took off for good, 11 years after the founding of the club, the club issued the world's first pilot's licenses to Orville and Wilbur Wright, Louis Blériot, and Alberto Santos-Dumont. also...
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