- Pierre Deley
Pierre Deley (
1 November 1893 –27 February 1981 ), was one of the pioneering pilots for the "Aéropostale (aviation) " company.He was born in Marseillan,
France , the grand nephew and godson of another Marseillan native,Pierre Roques , the founder of French military aviation.He obtained his fighter pilot's licence in 1917 and finished
World War I with six aerial victories. He joined thePierre-Georges Latécoère 's Lignes Aériennes Latécoère company (later to become Aéropostale) in 1923, rubbing shoulders with, among others,Didier Daurat ,Jean Mermoz ,Henri Guillaumet andAntoine de Saint-Exupéry .After Mermoz and Guillaumet, he was the third pilot to cross the
Andes , eventually doing so more than 150 times. When Guillaumet disappeared in the Andes, Deley was on of the pilots who searched for him before he was eventually rescued.He created and managed the airport at Port-Étienne, then became station chief at Santiago airport,
Chile .He was transferred to
Air France in 1933 following the company's creation, and posted toBuenos Aires , becoming the company's representative forArgentina and Chile.He died in his home town of Marseillan.
Film
The 1995
IMAX film "Wings of Courage " (director:Jean-Jacques Annaud ) traced the career of Guillaumet. The part of Pierre Deley was played byKen Pogue .Further reading
Marseillan author, René Angel, has written a biography: "Pierre Deley, pionnier de l'Aéropostale". (Editions Loubatières 2004)
External links
* [http://www.latecoere.com/asuivre/deley.htm Biography on the Latécoère site.] fr
:* Translation/Ref|fr|Pierre Deley|oldid=13804128
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
