- Armand Dufaux
Armand Dufaux (1883 - 1941) was a Swiss
aviation pioneer who became famous for flying the length ofLake Geneva in 1910.He and his brother,
Henri Dufaux (1879-1980) were natives ofGeneva . Their first design was a modelhelicopter weighing 17 kg; this was followed by a large eight-wing plane that was unable to fly, then a third design that crashed on its first flight.The "Dufaux 4" was their first successful craft. On
28 August 1910 , Armand flew it fromSt. Gingolph to Geneva, taking just 56 minutes and 5 seconds, and winning a prize of 5,000 Swiss francs for the feat.Later in 1910, the brothers established an aircraft business, and in 1911, sold their "Dufaux 5" to an 18-year-old
Ernest Failloubaz , whose reconnaissance flights were the beginning of Swiss military aviation.The Dufaux 4 is today on display at the
Swiss Museum of Transport . Armand Dufaux was honored on a Swisspostage stamp in 1997, as one of four pioneers of Swiss aviation.References
* [http://www.verkehrshaus.ch/en/museum/luftfahrt/bestof.php Swiss Museum of Transport info on Dufaux]
* [http://www.pionnair-ge.com/spip1/spip.php?article34 Geneva air pioneers page, with timeline (in French)]
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