This month marks the 98th anniversary since French aviator and dogfighter Roland Garros was the first Frenchman to cross the Mediterranean by air.

His interest in aviation stemmed from a visit to the Reims air show of 1909. Until this point he had studied music with the intention of becoming a concert pianist.

However, his career aspirations underwent a rapid change in the wake of the air show.

Following a series of air lessons he himself practiced exhibition and stunt flying, setting numerous records during 1911-12.

In 1913 he flew from France to Tunisia – some 800 kilometres – and was teaching military aviation in Germany when war broke out in August 1914. Undeterred, he smuggled his way back to France – via a night flight to Switzerland – and signed up with the renowned Storks squadron.

On the outbreak of the First World War, Roland Garros was sent to serve on the Western Front. But he realised that he would have more success in dogfights if he could find a way of firing a machine-gun through the propeller.

Working with Raymond Saulnier, a French aircraft manufacturer, Garros added deflector plates to the blades of the propeller of his Morane-Saulnier. These small wedges of toughened steel diverted the passage of those bullets which struck the blades.

Now able to use a forward-firing machine-gun, he went out searching for his first victim. On April 1, 1915, Garros approached a German Albatros B II reconnaissance aircraft. The German pilot was surprised when Garros approached him head-on. The accepted air fighting strategy at the time was to take “pot-shots” with a revolver or rifle.

Instead Garros shot down the Albatros through his whirling propeller.

In the following two weeks Garros shot down four more enemy aircraft. However, the success was short-lived because on April 18, a rifleman defending Courtrai railway station, managed to fracture the petrol pipe of the aircraft that Garros was flying.

Garros was forced to land behind the German front-line and, before he could set-fire to his machine, it was captured by the Germans. After finding out about Garros’s invention, German pilots began using these deflector plates on the blades of their propellers.

In 1918 Garros escaped from Germany and returned to active service on the Western Front. Roland Garros was shot down and killed at Vouziers on October 15, 1918.

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