Origins, construction, and design In the early 20th century, when
aviation was regarded as a sport for daredevils, aviation pioneers made their early public flights in the
Grand Paris (Greater Paris) region from
Issy-les-Moulineaux,
Vincennes, and the
Château de Bagatelle. Spectators observed them both from
grandstands and while swarming around the field in a circus atmosphere. In all cases, aviators had to borrow or rent venues designed or intended for other purposes; at Issy-les-Moulineaux and the Château de Bagatelle, the flights took place at
racetracks not designed for aviation, and at Issy-les-Moulineaux and Vincennes flights took place on fields the
French Army used for maneuvers and had to be scheduled so as not to interfere with military events. Seeking a better venue to host aviation events in the Grand Paris region, the
Société d’Encouragement à l’Aviation (Society for the Encouragement of Aviation) was formed on 30 July 1908 to establish the world's first true airfield, designed specifically for the use of aviators, as well as the world's first aviation school and first aviation competition. The Society formed the ''Compagnie de l'Aviation'' (Aviation Company) to operate the airfield and leased cultivated land from two families in the vicinity of the towns of Viry and Châtillon, about south of the center of Paris. Situated on a perfectly flat plain in a low valley and bisected by the
Orge, the land was sheltered from the wind by nearby hills along the banks of the
Seine. and organize the facilities necessary for it to function properly as an
aerodrome. Tronchet designed Port-Aviation not as a true
airport or aerodrome, but rather as a racecourse for airplanes at a time when airplanes generally flew at an altitude of around in competitions and only recently had become reliably capable of making turns.
Gabriel Voisin, an architect from
Juvisy-sur-Orge, drew up and approved the airfield's race courses. Construction began on 15 October 1908. according to different sources. A fourth course of was added in the autumn of 1909. Structures throughout the venue were decorated with depictions of
eagles,
vultures, and other
birds and
birds of prey. its instructor was
Ferdinand Ferber and
Igor Sikorsky enrolled at the school for flying lessons. to 10 December 1908, Meanwhile,
tobacco,
pharmacy,
candy, and
shoeshine kiosks, ladies'
hairdresser shops,
barbershops, shops selling aerial toys and
post cards, and bars opened along the road leading into the main entrance of Port-Aviation. On 1 April,
Archbishop of Paris Léon-Adolphe Amette blessed the airfield and two airplanes in a ceremony at Port-Aviation, but a hard rain again prevented flying and forced another postponement. Port-Aviation finally opened on 23 May 1909, when 30,000 spectators arrived to see the world's first
heavier-than-air air race, the
Prix de Lagatinerie. Nine pilots entered the competition, which required entrants to complete ten laps around two pylons positioned apart in the fastest time or, if no one completed ten laps, to travel the greatest distance. Only four pilots —
Léon Delagrange,
Ferdinand Ferber (under the pseudonym "F. de Rue"),
Alfred de Pischof, and
Henri Rougier — actually showed up for the race. On a very hot day, the crowd — told flying would begin at 2:00 p.m. but entertained only by a two-hour
kite competition that began at 2:30 p.m. — dwindled during a 3-hour 45-minute delay due to unfavorable winds. At 4:15 p.m., Delagrange rolled out his
Voisin biplane to give spectators something to see, and frustrated members of the crowd poured onto the airfield and surrounded him. He flew a lap of the field at 5:15 p.m. to entertain them. At 5:45 p.m. those who remained finally saw the beginning of the race. Only Rougier and Delagrange managed to take off, and neither of them completed ten laps. However, Delagrange had the last and longest flight, finishing at around 7:20 p.m. after covering slightly more than five laps at an altitude ranging from 5 metres (16.5 feet) on his first lap to on later laps, and was declared the winner. He had flown in 10 minutes 18 seconds, and the crowd raised him in triumph after he landed. Port-Aviation subsequently drew ever-increasing and enthusiastic weekend crowds as it hosted a series of minor flying events,
Charles de Lambert made a flight of 12 minutes 53 seconds in a
Wright Model A biplane on 13 June 1909, and
Paul Tissandier experimented unsuccessfully with a Wright biplane on 3 July 1909. At a charitable event for victims of an earthquake in
Midi-Pyrénées that drew 10,000 spectators to Port-Aviation on 4 July 1909,
Alfred Boulanger ascended to in a
hot air balloon and Louis Blériot circled the runway 24 times in 50 minutes 8 seconds to test the fuel endurance of his
Blériot XI monoplane, which he used three weeks later to make the first airplane flight across the
English Channel. Tragedy struck at Port-Aviation on 7 September 1909, when
Eugène Lefebvre, testing a Wright biplane, climbed to an altitude of before suddenly pitching forward and crashing. Thrown from the plane, he died in the infirmary shortly afterward without ever regaining consciousness, Flying continued on the field as the month continued, highlighted by tests on 16 September of a biplane with an
Antoinette engine, followed that evening by a flight by Charles de Lambert of two laps of the race course, covering at a height of before landing in front of his hangar. Organizers originally scheduled the event for , but the large number of entrants prompted them to expand the schedule, with testing and training days from followed by official events from . The
Grande Quinzaine drew huge crowds, including a record number of spectators on 10 October, estimated by the weekly newspaper ''
L'Illustration at 100,000 and by the magazine L'Aérophile'' at 250,000 to 300,000; with the surprised railway lines overwhelmed, visitors were packed into trains and
cattle cars and many did not reach Port-Aviation at all. of either 48 minutes 39 seconds The tragedy prompted the Paris lawyer Paul Foy to conduct the first prosecution for "furious driving in the air" in October 1909. On 21 October 1909, the closing day of the
Grande Quinzaine,
Henri Brégi completed the longest flight of the event other than de Lambert's Eiffel Tower flight, covering 13 laps in 33 minutes 3.4 seconds, while de Lambert completed six laps in 12 minutes 9.3 seconds, reaching a height of . although flights continued from the airfield. In November 1909,
Rodrig Goliescu tested his
Avioplan No. II — the first aircraft with a tubular
fuselage and the first with a
tubed propeller to fly — at Port-Aviation, reaching an altitude of about . In an attempt to win the 1909
International Michelin Cup, presented for the longest nonstop fight distance of 1909, Léon Delagrange established a new distance record for monoplanes and a new world speed record on 30 December 1909 in a flight at Port-Aviation, covering in 2 hours 32 minutes at an average speed of approximately . However, he did not succeed in beating
Henri Farman's record for distance for the year.
1910 By the beginning of 1910, the ''Compagnie de l'Aviation'' was facing financial difficulties. A post card indicates that he made the jump successfully. In early 1912, Port-Aviation played a role in the development of the first
flying boat when
François Denhaut tested a
seaplane which floated on a boat-
hull-shaped
fuselage — rather than on a system of
floats, as had been used in previous seaplane designs — and tested it in the
Grand Etang (Great Pond). He flew it over the Seine on 12 March 1912 in a test that ended when the plane flipped over as he attempted to land on the water. Denhaut subsequently rebuilt the plane to a modified design and resumed tests on the
Grand Etang. On 13 April 1912, he took off from Port-Aviation in the modified plane and landed on muddy ground close to the Seine. The aircraft then was pushed into the river and it took off and alighted seven or eight times before Denhaut returned to the bank of the Seine. The world's first flying boat, Denhaut's plane influenced the design of many later flying boats. Port-Aviation also hosted
horse races,
bicycle races, and
cross country running races. The Cycle-Pedestrian Cross took place at Port-Aviation on 13 February 1913, and on 24 March 1913
Jean Bouin won the
1913 International Cross Country Championships (or "Five Nations Cross") there. During the summer of 1913,
Roland Garros,
Edmond Audemars, and
Marcel Brindejonc des Moulinais competed in aviation time trials at the airfield. The new sport of
aerobatics also led to new achievements at Port-Aviation, where
Adolphe Pegoud entertained the crowds in a Blériot XI with the world's first inverted flight on 1 September 1913 and with a
loop on 21 September 1913
Parachuting events also took place over the airfield. On 12 February 1914,
Jean Ors dropped safely over Port-Aviation from beneath a
Deperdussin aircraft piloted at an altitude of by
Louis Lemoine. A Juvisy-sur-Orge entrenpreneur with the surname Piketty purchased the land in November 1913 with the intention of subdividing and selling it. By the summer of 1914 the aviation facilities had fallen into disuse and the airfield was used only for grazing
cattle. and lying in a narrow plain bordered by hills that too closely hemmed in the more powerful military aircraft that came into use as the war progressed. The
United States entered the war in April 1917, and later that year the Americans established a new airfield on a
plateau north of Port-Aviation near
Orly, the forerunner of
Paris Orly Airport. As a result, Port-Aviation became obsolete. The French Army moved its aviation training activities to
Etampes on 1 January 1918. According to one source, the airfield was closed and abandoned that day, but others claim that Belgian military forces moved in after the French left. Sometime in 1918, the airfield was closed and abandoned. ==Legacy==