Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, Count of Saint-Exupéry, Commander of the Legion of Honor. (Gallery Garima)
June 29, 1900: Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, Count Saint-Exupéry, famous French aviator, poet and writer, was born At 8 rue Payrat, Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France. He was the third of five children of Count Jean-Marc Martin, Count of Saint-Exupéry, and André Louise Marie de La Mole, Countess of Saint-Exupéry. As the eldest son, Antoine inherited his father's title of nobility.
While serving in the French cavalry, Saint-Exupéry took private flying lessons. He made his first solo flight on July 9, 1921, and soon obtained his civilian pilot certificate. Now eligible for military flight training, he was transferred to the Aéronautique Militaire in Morocco, where he received Military Pilot Certificate No. 19398 on 23 December 1921.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. (Inherited by Saint-Exupéry d'Agay via www.antoinedesaintexupery.com)
Saint-Exupéry was promoted to captain on February 5, 1922. He received further training as an officer cadet and was commissioned as a second lieutenant on October 10, 1922. On May 1, 1923, Lieutenant Saint-Exupery crashed a Hanriot HD-14 training aircraft during takeoff. One passenger was seriously injured. Saint-Exupéry was grounded. The accident was caused by pilot error, and he was released from military service on June 5, 1923.
Saint-Exupéry was engaged to marry Muller. Louise de Vermeulin. As a result of the crash, he promised he would give up aviation and find a job as an office worker. The engagement ended and he returned to flying. In 1926, he joined General Air France (CGEA), which in 1927 became the predecessor of Air France in North Africa and South America.
In 1922, Caporal Saint-Exupéry was appointed élève – officier de réserve (reserve officer cadet). In this photo, Saint-Exupéry is wearing the insignia of a military pilot.
“The transportation of mail, the transportation of human voices, the transportation of flashing pictures—in this century as in other centuries, our highest achievements still have only one goal, which is to unite people.” - Antoine de · Saint-Exupéry, 1939
Count Saint-Exupéry married Sra. Consuelo Suncin-Sandoval Zeceña, April 22, 1932, in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes- Côte d'Azur, France. During this period, Saint-Exupéry also began his career as a writer.
His first book, "CourrierSud", was published in 1929. VoldeNuit (English version: NightFlight) was published in 1931. His autobiography "Sand Stars" was published in 1939 and is highly recommended. When his friend Henri Guillamet descended into the Cordillera de los Andes, about 123 miles (198 kilometers) west of Mendoza, Argentina, he spent the next five days walking On his way out, Saint-Exupéry wrote: "What saves a man is taking a step. And then another step.
"Life has meaning only if you exchange it for something other than yourself every day. ” Free French Air Force Commander Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in the cockpit of a Lockheed F-5B Lightning in 1944. (Photo by John Phillips, LIFE Magazine)
It’s always the same step, but you must take it.”—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Terredeshommes (English edition: Wind, Sand and Stars), French translation by Lewis Galantière, Harcourt Brace & Company, New York, Chapter 2 Page 37
April 7, 1930, Saint-Exupéry Perry was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor. On December 29, 1935, while driving his red and white Caudron C.630 Simoun, F-ANRY, Saint-Exupery crashed in the Sahara Desert during a race from Paris, France to Saigon, French Indochina. He and his mechanic André Prévost were stranded without food or water.They wandered aimlessly for four days and were on the verge of death when they were rescued by a Bedouin tribesman. Saint-Exupéry wrote about this experience in "The Wind and the Stars," which was the inspiration for his classic novel "The Little Prince."
"What saves a man is taking a step. And then another step. It's always the same step, but you have to take it." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry stands on his Caudron C in the Sahara Desert, 1935 .630 Simoun, next to the wreckage of F-ANRY. (No source cited)
Saint-Exupéry traveled to Spain in 1937 to observe the Spanish Revolution. He was horrified by his experience. "War is not an adventure," he wrote. "It is a disease." In 1939, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor. After the outbreak of World War II, Saint-Exupéry returned to the Air Force and flew in a reconnaissance squadron.
As France surrendered to the German invaders, he fled to Portugal. Saint-Exupéry departed from Lisbon on December 20, 1940 aboard the SS Siboney, arriving in New York Harbor on December 31. In April 1943, he returned to the battlefield with the Free French Air Force Aériennes Françaises Libres. He flies a twin-engine Lockheed F-5B, an unarmed photographic reconnaissance aircraft based on the P-38J Lightning fighter. His squadron, 31 Eescadre, Groupe 2/33, operated from Borgo, an airfield on the northeastern coast of Corsica.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery pilots a Lockheed F-5B-1-LO Lightning near Alghero on the coast of Sardinia in 1944. (John E. Annamaria Phillips Foundation)
Commandant Saint-Exupéry pilots his aircraft during a mission to Grenoble and Annecy from his base in the French Alps on July 31, 1944. The Lockheed F-5B-1-LO Lightning photo reconnaissance aircraft (serial number 42-68223) is missing. In 1998, a fisherman discovered his identity bracelet off the coast of southern France. In May 2000, the wreckage of the F-5B was located on the seabed.
The Little Prince, first edition, 1943. (Bowman's Rare Books)
On April 7, 2004, the "Department of Underwater and Undersea Archaeological Research" (DRASSM) of the French Ministry of Culture confirmed that the aircraft wreckage found east of the island of Riou in the Mediterranean sea off Marseille was indeed that of Saint-Express. The plane driven by Soupéry. Although Saint-Exupery's body has not been found, there is a monument engraved with Saint-Exupéry's name in the Panthéon in Paris, France, in recognition of his contribution. There are two asteroids named after B-612 and the author in honor of Saint-Exupéry.
