Roland Garros (aviator)

Garros in an aircraft cockpit

During his summer holiday in 1909, at Sapicourt near Reims, staying with a friend's uncle, he saw the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne which ran from 22 to 29 August. After this, he knew he had to be an aviator.[9]

He started his aviation career in 1909 flying a Demoiselle (dragonfly) monoplane, an aircraft that flew well only if it had a small lightweight pilot. He gained Ae.C.F. licence no. 147 in July 1910. In 1911 Garros graduated to flying Blériot XI monoplanes and entered a number of European air races with this type of aircraft, including the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race and the Circuit of Europe (Paris–London–Paris), in which he came second.[10]

On 4 September 1911, he set an altitude record of 3,950 m (12,960 ft). The following year, on 6 September 1912, after Austrian aviator Philipp von Blaschke had flown to 4,360 m (14,300 ft), he regained the height record by flying to 5,610 m (18,410 ft).[11][12][13]

By 1913 he was flying the faster Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, and on 23 September gained fame for making the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from Fréjus-Saint Raphaël in the south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia[14] in a Morane-Saulnier G. The flight commenced at 5:47 am and lasted for nearly eight hours, during which time Garros resolved two engine malfunctions.[5] The following year, Garros joined the French army at the outbreak of World War I.

Reports published in August 1914 claimed Garros was involved in the "first air battle in world history" and that he had flown his plane into a Zeppelin, destroying the airship and killing its pilots and himself.[15] This story was quickly contradicted by reports that Garros was alive and well in Paris.[16] Such early reports maintained that an unidentified French pilot had indeed rammed and destroyed a Zeppelin,[16]. However, German authorities denied the story.[17] Later sources indicated the first aerial victory against a Zeppelin occurred in June 1915 and earlier reports, including that of Garros, had been discounted.[18]

Garros' propeller, with its bullet deflectors, after being recovered from his downed aircraft

In the early stages of the air war in World War I, the problem of mounting a forward-firing machine gun on combat aircraft—without having the bullets hit the propeller—was considered by several people. As a reconnaissance pilot with the Escadrille MS26, Garros had made several attempts at shooting down German aircraft; however, these efforts were unsuccessful due to the difficulty in hitting an aircraft with a hand-held carbine. He visited the Morane-Saulnier works[19] in November or December 1914 to discuss the problem.

Raymond Saulnier had begun work on a synchroniser (which times the firing of the gun with the position of the propeller) before World War I and had taken out a patent for a workable mechanism by 14 April 1914. However, circumstances beyond his control resulted in its being tested with the Hotchkiss 09/13 portative machine gun, which proved unsuitable due to an inconsistent firing rate.[20] As a workaround, Garros, with the help of his mechanic, Jules Hue, developed protective wedges, which were fitted to the slightly narrowed propeller blades which deflected the occasional round which would have otherwise struck the propeller.[21] With a workable installation now fitted to his Morane-Saulnier G monoplane, Garros achieved the first ever shooting-down of an aircraft by a fighter firing through a tractor propeller, on 1 April 1915, and two more victories over German aircraft were achieved on 15 and 18 April 1915.[19][5] The Aero Club of America awarded him a medal for this invention three years later.[22]

On 18 April 1915, the fuel line of his Morane Saulnier Type G became clogged, causing engine trouble. He came down in German-controlled territory where he was grabbed by alert German Infantrymen. The intact gun and propeller were quickly rushed to Germany’s best aircraft designer, Anthony Fokker. Fokker quickly dismissed the steel deflector plates and designed a practical interrupter gear for use on the Fokker E.I Monoplane. The Interrupter gear began the “Fokker Scourge,” and for a time Germany had the upper hand in the war.

After almost three years in captivity in various German POW camps Garros managed to escape on 14 February 1918 together with fellow aviator lieutenant Anselme Marchal. They made it to London via the Netherlands and from there he returned to France where he rejoined the French army.[23][24] He returned to Escadrille 26 to pilot a SPAD XIII, and claimed two victories on 2 October 1918, one of which was confirmed.

On 5 October 1918, he was shot down and killed near Vouziers, Ardennes, a month before the end of the war and one day short of his 30th birthday.[25][3] His adversary was probably German ace Hermann Habich from Jasta 49, flying a Fokker D.VII.[26]

• Cobleigh, Ed (2019). The First Fighter Pilot: Roland Garros. Paso Robles: Check Six. ISBN 978-1629671567.
• Fleury, Georges (2009). Roland Garros. Un inconnu si célèbre. p. 44. ISBN 978-2849411230.
• Franks, Norman L. R. (1992). Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914–1918. Grub Street. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-948817-54-0.
• Lefèvre-Garros, Jean-Pierre (2001). Ananké/Lefrancq (ed.). Roland Garros. La tête dans les nuages, la vie aventureuse et passionnée d'un pionnier de l'aviation. p. 32-33. ISBN 9782874180125.
• Reynolds, Francis J.; Churchill, Allen L.; Miller, Francis Trevelyan (1916). The Story of the Great War. New York: P.F. Collier and Son. p. 592.
• Robertson, Linda Raine (2003). The Dream of Civilized Warfare: World War I Flying Aces and the American Imagination. U of Minnesota Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-8166-4270-0.
• Woodman, Harry (1989). Early Aircraft Armament: The Aeroplane and the Gun Up to 1918. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 978-0-87474-994-6.
• Vũ, Trọng Phụng (2002). Dumb Luck: A Novel. Translated by Zinoman, Peter. University of Michigan Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-472-06804-3.