VIDEO. Secrets from here: rediscover the mythical runway of aviation pioneers, in Toulouse Montaudran
Our video section “Secrets d’ici” reveals major places of our regional heritage. One of the most beautiful pages of French aviation was written in Toulouse Montaudran. The pioneers of the Aéropostale flew there from a field. Partly listed as a Historic Monument, the track is still visible, in the heart of a district undergoing metamorphosis.
If you walk along this 1.8 km long ribbon of asphalt, set between a modern housing estate to the north and the imposing building B612, to the south, it is hard to imagine what an incredible piece of history has been built there. In Montaudran, along the Toulouse ring road, the Piste des Pionniers has been partly preserved, as evidenced by an 800 m section, listed as a Historic Monument. All around came out of the ground the Hall of the Machine, Flight of the Pioneersthe UGC multiplex cinema and tall buildings… The pillars of a new district, Toulouse Aeronautics. The same site that once saw Mermoz, Saint-Exupéry and Guillaumet take flight.
The Montaudran track seen from the sky today, in the heart of a district under construction.
Their destiny is written by the will of a single man at the start: Pierre-Georges Latécoère. In 1917, this entrepreneur from Bagnères-de-Bigorre set up the region’s first aeronautical construction company there. This self-taught visionary manufactures and delivers hundreds of planes to the Army. At the end of the war, he had the idea of developing mail transport by air. He reconverted his aircraft into civilian aircraft and hired idle pilots returning from the war.
The first study flight took place on December 25, 1918, to Barcelona. The track is not paved: it is a grassy field, muddy on bad days, swept by the southern wind. Latécoère takes off with the pilot René Cornemont, dressed to the nines, white scarf in the wind. Between them, they achieve the impossible. A marketing operation, filmed and photographed, which enabled the entrepreneur to strike a chord and, the following year, to convince the Ministry of War to create links to the colonies.
![Flight from the Toulouse Montaudran runway, in 1922.](https://images.ladepeche.fr/api/v1/images/view/623dce308e6aa246f44f9115/full/image.jpg?v=1)
Flight from the Toulouse Montaudran runway, in 1922.
On March 9, 1919, Henri Lemaître reached Casablanca with a bouquet of violets and a copy of the newspaper, to attest to the speed of the flight. Rabat, Fez, Oran, Dakar will follow… The Latécoère lines indicate the delivery time for mail from several weeks to a few days. A revolution in the exchanges between men. The director Didier Daurat is very demanding on recruitment. Even the most seasoned pilots, such as the “Archangel” Jean Mermoz, were put in their place and first hired as mechanics, to force their humility. “I don’t need circus artists, but bus drivers”, he said. Mail transport is serious business, IAntics are not welcome.
In 1927, Latécoère sold its assets to businessman Marcel Bouilloux-Lafont, who created the Compagnie Générale Aéropostale.
The heyday of Aéropostale
The 1930s marked the finest hours for Aéropostale, with the start of connections to South America. On May 12 and 13, 1930, Mermoz crossed the Atlantic Ocean syour Latécoère 28.3 seaplane.
“We delivered mail on three continents, with 28 stopovers and 9 countries crossed as far as Santiago de Chile”, explains Fabrice Cruz, host at l’Envol des Pionniers. This museum is housed in what used to be the General Store, where the aircraft parts were. It perpetuates the memory of those who participated in this adventure, sometimes risking their lives. Explorers of the sky, as courageous and striking as a Gagarin. “They flew over the desert, crossed the ocean, the Andes, taking off from this field, in trembling planes, made of canvas and wood”, enthuses Fabrice Cruz. Up to 1,500 people worked simultaneously for Aéropostale, including 80 pilots and 250 mechanics.
![Fabrice Cruz, in pilot's uniform, is an animator at the L'Envol des Pionniers museum.](https://images.ladepeche.fr/api/v1/images/view/623dce254fd0a65a9c042a97/full/image.jpg?v=1)
Fabrice Cruz, in pilot’s uniform, is an animator at the L’Envol des Pionniers museum.
The Air France page
Aéropostale went into liquidation in 1931, partly because of the Great Depression. It is integrated into Air France. A page turns to the site, which then hosts the company’s overhaul center. The runway was reinforced, lengthened, then paved, to accommodate aircraft undergoing maintenance until 2003.
![The Air France overhaul center provides aircraft maintenance.](https://images.ladepeche.fr/api/v1/images/view/623dce24cc13c8129f73de66/full/image.jpg?v=1)
The Air France overhaul center provides aircraft maintenance.
The history of this runway is thus intertwined with that of airlines, aeronautical construction and even space. Innovation has been nourished by audacity and has indirectly given rise to institutions such as Enac, Supaero and Cnes in its immediate vicinity.
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