| Charles Eugene Jules Marie Nungesser | |
|---|---|
| 15 March 1892 – on or after 8 May 1927 | |
 Charles Nungesser wearing his numerous military decorations. |
|
| Place of birth | Valenciennes |
| Place of death | Disappeared over the Atlantic |
| Allegiance | France |
| Service/branch | French Air Service |
| Years of service | 1914-1918 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | N65, Spa65, V106, V116 |
| Awards | Légion d'Honneur, Croix de Guerre, Médaille Militaire |
Charles Eugène Jules Marie Nungesser (15 March 1892 - presumably on or after 8 May 1927) was a French ace pilot and adventurer, best remembered as a rival of Charles Lindbergh. Nungesser was a renowned ace in France, rating third highest in the country for air combat victories during World War I. After the war, Nungesser mysteriously disappeared on an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New york, flying with wartime comrade François Coli from Paris to New York City in The White Bird (L'Oiseau Blanc). Their aircraft took off from Paris on 8 May 1927, was sighted once more over Ireland, and then was never seen again.
The disappearance of Nungesser is considered one of the great mysteries in the history of aviation, and modern speculation is that the aircraft was either lost over the Atlantic, or crashed in Newfoundland or Maine.[1]
Two weeks after Nungesser and Coli's attempt, Charles Lindbergh successfully made the journey, flying solo from New York to Paris in Spirit of St. Louis. Monuments and museums honoring Nungesser and Coli's attempt exist at the Le Bourget airport in Paris, and on the cliffs of Étretat, the location from which they were last sighted in France.
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Early life
Charles Nungesser was born on 15 March 1892 in Valenciennes, and as a child was very interested in competitive sports. After attending the École des Arts et Métiers, where he was a mediocre student who nonetheless excelled in sports such as boxing, he went to South America; first to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to search for an uncle who could not be located, and then on to Buenos Aires, Argentina where he worked as an auto mechanic before becoming a professional racer. His interest in racing soon led him to flying airplanes. He eventually found his missing uncle, and worked on his sugar plantation.
World War I exploits
Enlisting in the cavalry
When World War I broke out in July 1914, Nungesser returned to France where he enlisted with a hussar (cavalry) regiment. During one patrol, he and several soldiers commandeered a German patrol car after killing its occupants. This impressed his superiors, and he was subsequently awarded the Medaille Militaire, and was granted his request to be transferred to the Service Aeronautique.
Serving in the Service Aeronautique
Upon becoming a military pilot, was transferred to Escadrille VB106, where in July 1915 he shot down his first plane, a German Albatros and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In November 1915, he was then transferred to Escadrille N.65 (the 65th Squadron), and was later attached to the famous Lafayette Escadrille composed of American volunteers. While visiting the Escadrille on one of his convolescent periods while recuperating from his wounds, he borrowed a plane and shot down another German while he was there. By the end of 1916, he had claimed 21 air kills.
Undisciplined at times
Despite being a decorated pilot, Nungesser was placed under house arrest, on more than one occasion, for flying without permission. He disliked strict military discipline, and went to Paris to enjoy its many pleasures (e.g. drink and women) as often as possible. He was a leading fighter pilot, whose combat exploits against the Germans were widely publicized in France. Nungesser's rugged good looks, flamboyant personality, and his appetite for danger, beautiful women, wine and fast cars made him the embodiment of the stereotypical flying ace. In contrast to the unsociable but nonetheless top French ace René Fonck, Nungesser was well liked by his comrades. Yet, Nungesser suffered a very bad crash in January 1916 that broke both his legs, and he would be injured again many times. He was often so hobbled by wounds and injuries, he had to be helped into his cockpit.
Victories as a Flying Ace
Notwithstanding these setbacks, Nungesser became an ace in April 1916, and finished the war with 45 official victories, the third highest number among French fliers behind René Fonck and Georges Guynemer. His silver Nieuport 17 plane was decorated with a black heart-shaped field, with a macabre Jolly Roger, a coffin and candles painted inside. He had adopted the title "The knight of Death", paraphrasing the French word 'Mort' for a German vehicle of the 'Mors' mark, like the one he had earlier captured while as a cavalryman. In his flying career, Nungesser received dozens of military decorations from France, Belgium, Montenegro, United States of America, Portugal, Russia, and Serbia.
Post WWI activities and disappearance
Work in the film industry
After the conclusion of World War One in November 1918, he tried to organize a private flying school but failed to attract enough students. As the post-World War I economic recession had left many WWI aces without a job, he decided to take his chances with cinema in the United States, where the days of heroic flying was a very popular theme. It was when Nungesser was in the U.S. doing the film The Dawn Patrol that he got interested in the idea of making a transatlantic flight, and told his friends his next trip to America would be by air. In 1923 Nungesser became engaged to Consuelo Hatmaker.[2]
Nungesser disappears
Francois Coli, a navigator already known for making historic flights across the Mediterranean, had been planning a transatlantic flight since 1923, with his wartime comrade Paul Tarascon, another WWI ace. When Tarascon had to drop out because of an injury from a crash, Nungesser came in as a replacement. Nungesser and Coli took off from Le Bourget airport in Paris on 8 May 1927, heading for New York in their aircraft L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird), a Levasseur P.L.8 biplane painted with Nungesser's old WWI insignia. Their plane was last sighted heading past Ireland, and when they never arrived, the assumption was that their plane had crashed in the Atlantic. Two weeks later, American aviator Charles Lindbergh successfully crossed from New York to Paris and was given an immense hero's welcome by the French, even as they mourned for the loss of Nungesser and Coli.
Over the years, there have been various investigations to try to determine what happened to Nungesser and Coli. Most believe that the plane crashed over the Atlantic due to a rain squall, but the aircraft has never been recovered. The leading alternate theory is that the aircraft may have crashed in Maine.[1]
Charles Nungesser in film
In the scenes of the first American air fighting super production film, The Dawn Patrol (1930), Nungesser was flying himself in his own plane with the 'The knight of Death' emblem on it - it was not a Nieuport 17, however, but a Hanriot HD.1 type. The film became a success, due to the many scenes of spectacular dogfighting shot some 4 years before the film was released, and when, of course, Nungesser was still alive. A number of other aces of WW1 of various nationalities have been used as well to fly planes in similar film productions or airshow demonstrations.
Contrary to rumor, Nungesser was not one of the stunt pilots killed during the filming of Hell's Angels (1930), the epic aviation movie by Howard Hughes.
In the 1970s, a French film with the same title (Les as des as), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo used extensively the many anecdotes on Nungesser's life. In addition to dogfighting, his night life in Paris had become a legend of sorts.
A 1999 Canadian made for TV children's special movie, Dead Aviators (airs on US cable TV as "Restless Spirits"), uses the mystery of The White Bird's disappearance as the key plot device. A young girl, who struggles with her pilot father's death in a plane crash years before, visits her grandmother in Newfoundland. While there, she encounters the ghosts of Nungesser and Coli, whose restless spirits constantly relive their own unheralded 1927 crash in a nearby pond. The girl decides to help the pair move on to the afterlife by assisting them in rebuilding their airplane and completing their flight so they may be released, and by doing so, works through her own emotional distress over her father's test flight death. The depiction of The White Bird and Nungesser's crest and dialog references to Nungesser's wartime achievements are very consistent with some published accounts.
In Attack of the Hawkmen, the 37th episode in the 1992 to 1996 television miniseries The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles by George Lucas, the character Indiana Jones (played by Sean Patrick Flanery) meets French ace pilot Charles Nungesser (played by Patrick Toomey) when the young adult Indiana Jones, as a Belgian officer, is temporarily attached to the Lafayette Escadrille. In this episode, Nungesser is depicted as the squadron's reckless, flamboyent and charismatic hero who parties in Paris and duels with The Red Baron. During the 38th episode, Nungesser flies Young Indiana in and out of Germany in a German biplane, to accomplish an undercover spy mission concerning Dutch aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker (played by Craig Kelly), who was building new planes, like the Fokker Dr.I, for Germany's war effort.
References
- ^ a b "The Secret of The White Bird". aero-news.net. 2006-05-09. http://www.aero-news.net/news/featurestories.cfm?ContentBlockID=c22b14fc-5c71-4b9b-ac77-a08f5528439f&Dynamic=1. Retrieved on 2008-05-02.
- ^ "Engaged". Time (magazine). 1923. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,715619,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-05. "Captain Charles Nungesser, French ace, who brought down 83 German aeroplanes, to Miss Consuelo Hatmaker."
Further reading
- Norman Franks and Frank W. Bailey (1992). Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the U.S. and French Air Services 1914-1918. Grub Street, London.
See also
External links
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