About Georges Legagneux
Georges Théophile Legagneux (24 December 1882 in Puteaux – 6 July 1914 in Saumur) was a French aviator, the first person to fly an aircraft in several countries, and the first to fly a fixed-wing aircraft higher than both 10,000 and 20,000 feet (3,048 and 6,096 m). == Biography == === Birth and early career === Legagneux was born in Puteaux, France, on 24 December 1882. He began his career in aviation as a mechanic for Léon Levavasseur, the builder of Antoinette aircraft. He also worked as a mechanic for Ferdinand Ferber, thanks to whom he began to fly in 1908, with some success. On 19 August 1908 he made a flight in the Ferber IX at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, that earned him the third and final 200-metre (656 ft) prize offered by the Aéro-Club de France, but he retrospectively was disqualified in September 1908 because he achieved his performance too early in the morning. === 1909 === Legagneux trained at Port-Aviation (often called "Juvisy Airfield") at Viry-Châtillon in January 1909 and at the Camp de Châlons in Mourmelon-le-Grand in February 1909. In April 1909 he made aerial exhibition flights in a Voisin Farman I biplane in Vienna — his flight there on 23 April 1909 being the first-ever fixed-wing aircraft flight in Austria — and was slightly injured in a crash of the plane. His flight in Stockholm on 29 July 1909 marked the first flight by a powered airplane in Sweden. He took part in the first Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne, held near Reims from 22 to 29 August 1909, and impressed observers by flying "very high," according to Frantz Reichel, a correspondent for Le Figaro. Legagneux subsequently took part in "aviation sessions" in Belgium and the Russian Empire.
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