33 Facts About Hubert Latham

Arthur Charles Hubert Latham was a French aviation pioneer.

Hubert Latham was the first person to attempt to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane.

Hubert Latham had two siblings, an older sister, Edmee, and a younger sister, Leonie.

Hubert Latham competed successfully in an Antoinette motor yacht in the power boat racing events at the Monaco Regatta, April 1905, in association with his cousin Jules Gastambide and Leon Levavasseur, the inventor of the Antoinette engine.

Hubert Latham returned from the Far East in time to take the opportunity of witnessing several of the performances by Wilbur Wright, who was in France trying to sell his aeroplane to the French Government, in his Flyer at Camp d'Auvours, near Le Mans.

Hubert Latham selected the Antoinette company headed by Jules Gastambide, a distant cousin, and Leon Levavasseur, co-director, designer, and chief engineer, whom Latham knew from Monaco, since it was Levavasseur who designed the boats Latham raced as well as built their engines which became the precursors of his aeroplane motors.

Hubert Latham joined the firm in February 1909, and was taught to fly by the company's pilots, Eugene Welferinger and Rene Demasnet.

Once Hubert Latham became proficient, for the next two years he competed at aviation meets throughout Europe and the United States, setting records and winning prizes.

Hubert Latham's performances earned him fame on both sides of the Atlantic.

Latham's cousin, Rene Labouchere, was responsible for the development of "Antoinette" engines, and in the spring of 1909 became the first passenger whom Hubert Latham carried for 200 metres, 5 metres above ground at Mourmelon le Grand.

On 9 July 1909, while encamped at Sangatte, several miles west of Calais on the French coast of the English Channel, Hubert Latham officially informed the Daily Mail that he intended to cross the Channel by air and claim their prize.

Hubert Latham was forced to renew his intention several times as his attempt was continually delayed by bad weather.

Levavasseur and the rest of Hubert Latham's team slept the night through and failed to notice the opportunity, a lapse which was rigorously criticised by Hubert Latham's supporters.

Hubert Latham was within minutes of arriving in the vicinity of Dover when engine failure again forced him into the sea.

Hubert Latham wanted to make yet another attempt but as British pioneer aviator Claude Grahame-White wrote:.

Hubert Latham competed in the Grand Prix event, trying to fly the longest distance around the circuit in a single uninterrupted flight, making several attempts in two different aircraft over the three-days.

Hubert Latham won prizes for second place in one aircraft and fifth in the other.

Hubert Latham competed as a member of the French team in the first Coupe Internationale d'Aviation, popularly known as the Gordon Bennett Cup since its inauguration as a hot air balloon contest years earlier, which was held during the first "Reims Week".

In Los Angeles in December 1910, while Hubert Latham was participating in an aviation meet, he was asked by one of the wealthier citizens of the city if he would consider coming to his estate to try to shoot wild duck in the air from his aeroplane.

Hubert Latham agreed and shot two with a borrowed shotgun and thus became the first person to hunt wild fowl from an aeroplane.

Hubert Latham had one of the ducks stuffed and it is still displayed at the Chateau de Maillebois.

In Los Angeles, Hubert Latham had a serious crash attributed to wind gusts.

Hubert Latham misjudged the strength of the wind while trying to land, which resulted in his being driven into a hillside.

Hubert Latham survived another crash in early 1911 when he gave a demonstration flight at the Brooklands automobile racing course in England.

Hubert Latham did not ship an aircraft but instead brought an out-board engine for a canoe.

However, in one anonymous contemporary newspaper article which appeared in 1914, it was claimed that the adjutant-commandant of a French Colonial Army fort located just outside Fort Archambault, who retrieved his body after his death, had found that Hubert Latham had sustained a single head wound and saw no marks on or around Hubert Latham's body consistent with a rampaging buffalo.

The writer claimed that the commandant believed, based on the physical evidence and on the conflicting reports of the porters under questioning, that it was possible Hubert Latham had been murdered by one or more of his porters, perhaps in order to steal his rifles, but was unable to prove it.

Hubert Latham was originally buried in Fort Lamy, because French colonial law forbade the transport of any human remains to another country until a full year had lapsed since death.

In January 1914 Hubert Latham's mother arranged to have her son's corpse disinterred and shipped to Le Havre where he was re-interred in the family plot.

Hubert Latham had never married and thus left no direct descendants.

Hubert Latham's own written account of his final weeks in the bush described his unease over the discipline of his team of bearers, and his anxiety over the levels of discord and violence that ruled this military administered area.

The official investigation into Hubert Latham's death took no cognisance of his concerns and recorded the incident as a tragic hunting accident.

Hubert Latham appeared in a flash to become intensely alive.