MERMOZ JEAN (1901-1936)

Lot 126
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Estimation :
15000 - 20000 EUR
MERMOZ JEAN (1901-1936)
The School, autograph manuscript. Circa 1927-1928, 16 pages and a quarter in-4 in ink on paper with erasures and corrections. Important autobiographical manuscript recounting his apprenticeship as a pilot at the Istres Military Aviation School in 1920. "One October evening in 1920, I set foot for the first time on the soil of Provence without any hesitation: I felt the soul of a conqueror and in fact, my assignment as a student pilot at the Istres School of Aviation gave me enough importance, in my eyes, that it was so". He arrived by train at night and met two other soldiers at the station. All three went on foot in the night towards the air camp, in the Mistral: "And then it was the Crau, a kind of desert groaning in the wind, populated by olive trees and stunted pines that cut themselves into black skeletons on the greyish horizon. We said nothing, bent under the gusts of wind, jumping over the ruts of the broken and endless road". When they arrived at the camp, they had to share the mattresses of the other soldiers who were already asleep: "For a long time, I dreamed of spirals, stalled propellers, loops and spins on an ideal plane of which I was the marvellous pilot. It was my first night in the air. Installation. The next day, he is assigned to a room. "I was given two regulation outfits, two patched blue canvas jackets and pants, a pair of godillots dating at least from 1913 or 14, but it was with real happiness that I was given the leather helmet, glasses, stuffed gloves and the flight suit. A little later, my joy was complete when I received the silver student badge. I was only beginning to believe that now I was definitely taking a step up in aviation and no longer despaired of becoming an ace! Speech by Captain VOISIN: "He was an old aviation man, a declining pilot, but one who set an example by continuing to fly every day at the age of 52. He was to die as a true apostle two years later from a fifty-meter fall in a spin. Suicide...is it whis
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