Date of birth:

December 14th, 1905 (Paris, VIIe, France)

Date of death:

September 14th, 1986 (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France)

Nationality:

French

Maurice Claisse established in 1936 the first five international helicopter records and ensured the rapid development and release of attack and assault planes Breguet 690 and derivatives.

Chief Breguet pilot in 1937, he was director of flight tests in 1938. Reserve lieutenant in the Air Force, he was placed on special assignment and remained in his post during the war.

He ensured the total evacuation of the material for which he was responsible until the arrival of the Germans in June 1940 and joined Group 2/34 as pilot before being demobilized.

After several unsuccessful attempts to leave France in the fall of 1940, he went to the southern zone with a small group of comrades who, thanks to the network of the Musée de l'Homme, could establish contact with a group of smugglers in Toulouse.

After a month of waiting at the Pyrenean border, Maurice Claisse with a comrade and two guides crosses the Spanish border at the beginning of March 1941. Via Barcelona then Madrid, where his companion is arrested, and finally Portugal, he manages to reach the England April 6, 1941.

He joined the Free French Air Forces on May 22, 1941 and was promoted to captain. After a short training, he was assigned in August 1941 to a fighter unit of the Royal Air Force (66 Squadron) where he carried out 130 hours of war flying, including 68 missions over the territories occupied by the enemy, in quality of section or squadron leader. He took part in the operations on Dieppe in August 1942.

Recalled in September 1942 by the British Air Ministry to the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough as a test pilot, he completed 290 hours of test flight on more than 70 different types of British, American and German aircraft (captured aircraft ).

Maurice Claisse is the first French pilot to take part in the flight tests of the Gloster E 29/38 jet (prototype) aircraft.

He was promoted to commander on December 25, 1943 and returned to operation at his request, but, being too old, he could not join a day fighter unit; he was then assigned in May 1944 to a British night fighter unit (219 Squadron) on Mosquito; he carried out 130 hours of war flying there in 45 night flight missions beyond enemy lines, over the North Sea, Normandy, Belgium, Holland and Germany.

He was recalled by the Minister of Air on November 30, 1944 with a view to a mission in the United States as a test pilot.

Lieutenant-colonel at the end of the war, he resumed his profession of engineer and chief test pilot at SNECMA then again became an engineer at Breguet in 1956. He also published various aeronautical articles.

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• - Maurice CLAISSE | L'Ordre de la Libération et son Musée