1. Henri Farman was a British-French aviator and aircraft designer and manufacturer with his brother Maurice Farman.
30 Facts About Henri Farman
1. 2.
Henri Farman was born in Paris, France, and was baptised as Harry Edgar Mudford Farman.
3.
Henri Farman was a son of Thomas Frederick Farman, the Paris correspondent of the London Standard.
4.
Henri Farman's father was born in 1845 at Layer Marney, Essex, England.
5.
Henri Farman's mother, Sophia Ann Louisa Mudford, was born in Canterbury, Kent, on 9 September 1841.
6.
Henri Farman was baptised on 16 July 1844 at St Pancras Old Church in London, and was a daughter of the author William Mudford, who by the time of Sophia's baptism was living at Harrington Square.
7.
Henri Farman was able to pursue this interest as an amateur sportsman.
8.
Henri Farman took part in cycle races from the age of fourteen, and started winning some races.
9.
Brother Maurice Henri Farman began cycle racing at the same age and started winning prizes.
10.
Henri Farman became a championship cyclist, and won the Paris - Clermont-Ferrand race on 6 June 1892.
11.
On 25 June 1893, Henri Farman went by bicycle from Paris to Madrid with the journalist, author, and French cyclist Edouard de Perrodil.
12.
Henri Farman then took part in tandem races with his brother Maurice Farman, forming a successful partnership.
13.
On 31 January 1895, at the Velodrome d'Hiver, the Henri Farman brothers broke the tandem bicycle record, covering 44.906 kilometres in an hour.
14.
At around the same time as his brother Maurice, Henri Farman discovered motor racing.
15.
Maurice Henri Farman won the heavy car class of the race.
16.
On 29 May 1901, Henri Farman took part in the Paris-Bordeaux race and finished in seventh place.
17.
Henri Farman won the heavy class section of the 1902 Paris - Vienna race.
18.
Henri Farman took third place in the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup.
19.
Henri Farman had an accident during the elimination trials for the 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup, on 16 June, over the hilly Auvergne circuit.
20.
Henri Farman believed his car had ended up at the bottom of a ravine after this accident, but was not certain about the final destination of it.
21.
Henri Farman started practicing in 1907 with a homemade biplane glider on the sandhills of Le Touquet, after first experimenting with model aeroplanes of different sizes.
22.
Henri Farman then decided he wanted a powered plane, and ordered a Voisin 1907 biplane on 1 June 1907.
23.
Henri Farman used this aircraft to set many official records for both distance and duration.
24.
Henri Farman started to turn the plane in the air on this date.
25.
Henri Farman made a complete circular flight of 1,030 metres, in 1 minute 14 seconds on 10 November 1907 at Issy.
26.
The Voisin-Henri Farman I was the first biplane in Europe to fly a circular circuit of 1 kilometre, over a predetermined course, on 13 January 1908.
27.
On 30 October 1908, Henri Farman went on to make the first cross-country flight in Europe.
28.
Henri Farman flew from his hangars at Camp de Chalons, Bouy, to Reims, landing at the cavalry ground.
29.
Henri Farman was made a chevalier of the French Legion d'honneur in 1919.
30.
Henri Farman died in Paris on 17 July 1958 and is buried in the Cimetiere de Passy in Paris.