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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2293.PDF
14 FLIGHT 20 AUGUST 1954 A page from THE ESSO HISTOIRE OF AERIAL LOCOMOTION Adapted from the French de P. Crochet-Damais. Illustrated par Philippe Fety avec permission. DE BACQUEVILLE AND THE LAUNDRESS IN 1724 the Marquis de Bacqueville astonished Paris by making a solo flight of 300 metres. Contemporary chronicles relate that he took off from the flat roof of his hotel (situated on what is now the Quai Voltaire) in a machine consisting of a pair of wings " semblables a celles que Vart chretien prete aux anges." According to Gerard de Nerval, everything went well until the Marquis reached the middle of the Seine. Then he stalled and pancaked aboard a craft making its way upstream. Other authorities contend that the Marquis landed sweetly and according to plan, for it so happened that the barge was full of laundresses, one of whom was pretty enough to attract the eye of the brave aerial navigator. For a time at least the Marquis de Bacqueville was able to forget the problems of aeronautics and indulge his taste for dalliance. It was ever thus. Today genius gets results by remembering that it pays to say £sso AVIATION FUELS & LUBRICANTS ESSO PETROLEUM COMPANY, LIMITED. 36 QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON. S.W.
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