Paul Tissandier
French aviator and public figure (1881-1945)
Paul Tissandier (19 February 1881 – 11 March 1945) was a French aviator. He was the treasurer of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) from its foundation (1905) to 1919, and its Secretary General from 1913 to 1945, and it awards the Paul Tissandier Diploma every year in his honor.
Biography
Tissandier was the son of aviator Gaston Tissandier and nephew of Albert Tissandier, Gaston's brother.
Tissandier began his flying career as a hot air balloon pilot and later moved to airships and finally to airplanes. He was a pilot-pupil of Wilbur Wright. Together with Count Charles de Lambert, he was involved in the construction of hydro-gliders.
The Aero Club Paul Tissandier based at the Saint-Cyr-l'École airfield was named in his honour.
Paul Tissandier Diploma
The Paul Tissandier Diploma is a perpetual international award established in 1952 by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in memory of Tissandier who was Treasurer of the FAI from its foundation to 1919 and its Secretary General from 1913 to 1945. The diplomas are awarded to those persons who have served the cause of aviation and private and sporting aviation in particular, by their work, initiative, devotion or other endeavours.
Each Aero club which is a member of FAI may recommend a number of deserving candidates for the diploma each year; the U.S. is allowed three.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paul Tissandier” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.