Roland Garros

Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros (Known as "Roland Garros")

Pioneering Aviator, First Non-Stop Flight Across the Mediterranean (1913), Fighter Ace

Born Oct 06, 1888

Saint-Denis (Réunion Island), France

Passed Away Oct 05, 1918 Vouziers (Ardennes), France

Lifespan 29 years old

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"Victory belongs to the most persevering; in the air, fear must be converted into speed."

Archival Overview

Dashing French aviator who achieved world fame in 1913 by completing the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea, invented forward-firing fighter aircraft synchronization, and whose name graces the French Open tennis tournament.

Biographical Record

Born in Réunion, Garros bought a Demoiselle monoplane at twenty-one, becoming a record-setting air race pilot. On September 23, 1913, flying a Morane-Saulnier monoplane, he took off from Fréjus in southern France and landed 7 hours and 53 minutes later in Bizerte, Tunisia, completing the perilous 730-kilometer crossing.

In World War I, Garros revolutionized aerial warfare by fitting steel deflector wedges to propeller blades, allowing him to fire a machine gun directly through the propeller arc. Shot down and interned in Germany, he escaped and returned to combat, being killed in dogfight action near Vouziers one day before his thirtieth birthday.

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Rest in Peace Forever remembered and cherished Your legacy lives on in all of us With deep gratitude for your life and light

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial

Vouziers Communal Cemetery
Vouziers (Ardennes), France

                         GPS: 49.3972, 4.7000                    

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